[nysbirds-l] Cory's and Scopoli's Shearwaters: the Long Island Perspective

[Shaibal Mitra]

The looming split of Calonectris diomedea poses some record-keeping challenges 
for Long Island birders. The split means that all past records Cory's that were 
not identified to subspecies will be reassigned as Cory's/Scopoli's, and we are 
being encouraged to report future records in the same way, unless they can be 
conclusively identified.

The split seems pretty dubious to me. The taxa diomedea (which will be called 
Scopoli's, after "the Linnaeaus of the Austrian Empire"--at least for now!) and 
borealis (which will continue to be called Cory's) are extremely similar in 
every way and don't appear to show any consistent differences in status or 
occurrence in our region, except that borealis is significantly more numerous.

Because they are difficult to distinguish in the field, historical records of 
diomedea from our region have always been fortuitous—based on specimens and 
photographs identified ex post facto. When people started trying to identify 
them in the field, for instance showing me back of the camera photos of birds 
we had just observed together, my reply was, "If that's what diomedea looks 
like, I've been seeing it all my life." But the very fact that a non-trivial 
percentage of specimens and interpretable photos have turned out to be diomedea 
proves that it is not truly rare here. The question now is whether it is 
actually numerous enough to justify the "conservative" position that all birds 
that are not critically identified ought to be reported as slashes.

I'm not sure yet whether this is the right approach, so I will express a few 
consideratons here.

The proportion of Calonectris in our area that can be critically identified is 
quite small, probably fewer than one in twenty. Curiously, this is possibly 
roughly similar to the (unknown) ratio of diomedea to borealis as well. This 
means that the conservative position will result in a very significant 
underestimation of the abundance of both taxa in almost all contexts, but most 
significantly in the case of borealis, which we know is an abundant taxon, but 
which will appear at least an order of magnitude less numerous than it really 
is. Diomedea will appear rarer than it really is, but that's less of an issue 
because it is at least uncommon and not one of our most abundant seabirds, 
unlike borealis.

Another issue is that the frequency of identifiable encounters will be 
significantly lower from shore, where most of the total records originate) than 
at sea. This is because shore-based observations are never at extremely close 
range, whereas such observations occur regularly at sea (though still far fewer 
than distant detections). This is a problem because one of the most important 
questions is whether there might be difference between the two taxa in terms of 
inshore/offshore occurrence. Whatever the reality, it will be easier to 
document and record Scopoli's offshore. My hope is that near-shore boat trips, 
such as to Cox's Ledge and from Montauk whale watching trips, will help to set 
baselines for the various parameters.

A final point of personal interest concerns seasonal status. Since I began 
studying these birds in nearby Rhode Island in the early 1980s, Calonectris 
have been occurring earlier and in larger numbers during late May and through 
June (Conway (1979) doesn't show them becoming common until July). It is not 
necessarily to be assumed that this change in seasonal status involves the two 
taxa in equal degree.

It might be best to try the "conservative" approach for a couple of years, in 
order to compile robust samples of proven borealis, as well as of diomedea. 
Then, if the proportions of diomedea among critically identified birds is 
proven to be small in all contexts, as expected, we might revert to calling 
everything borealis unless proven/suspected otherwise, thus rendering the 
actual abundance of borealis more accurately.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

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Re: [nysbirds-l] American Flamingos in New York State

[Shaibal Mitra]

Thanks to Zach for reminding me of this more recent report.

Please add to the list another one as well, from Long Island ornithologist Peg 
Hart, who found an American Flamingo at her home in Bellport as a child! That 
this one has managed to remain overlooked is in part a consequence of Manny 
Levine's overly "rigorous" editorial approach in Bull's Birds (1998), in which 
even Bull's "Hypothetical" category was purged. Peg worked with me in the late 
90s when I was running the field station at Fire Island Lighthouse, so this 
story must have come up at some point and thus my faulty memory is probably 
also partly to blame.

11 Nov 1978, Bellport (Peat Hole), Suffolk County
Peg Hart, pers. comm. and The Advance (archives): “I grew up in a house next to 
the Peat Hole in Bellport; my mom still lives there. One day in the, I was 
playing in the yard and looked up to see a beautiful flamingo standing in the 
shallow water, near the sluiceway to the bay. I was 11 and ran excitedly to 
tell my dad who came out to see for himself. Dad called Art Cooley and much 
excitement ensued! Our yard was very lively that week and while many 
photographs were taken, we would be hard pressed to locate one.”
The Kingbird 29: 57-58; Barbara J. Spencer
“The origin and status of an American Flamingo in good plumage, found in 
Bellport Nov. 11 and seen frequently in the Bellport-Brookhaven area for two 
weeks, is unknown. Three late fall occurrences in Canada (1969, 1973, 1977) 
have been thought to have been storm-related vagrants by some.”

From: zach schwartz-weinstein 
Sent: Sunday, June 2, 2024 6:02 PM
To: Shaibal Mitra 
Cc: NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu) 
Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] American Flamingos in New York State


* This email originates from a sender outside of CUNY. Verify the sender before 
replying or clicking on links and attachments. *

It may be worth adding to these the report from October 1 of last year of a 
bird flying up the Hudson in northern Ulster county:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S151204238. Many region 8 birders staked out 
various spots among the river, but did not relocate a flamingo.


Zach Schwartz-Weinstein
203 500 7774


On Sun, Jun 2, 2024 at 2:59 PM Shaibal Mitra 
mailto:shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu>> wrote:
In the excitement over the potential addition of American Flamingo to the New 
York State Checklist, people have been curious about prior records. As far as I 
am aware, there have been four prior occurrences of American Flamingo. All of 
these were doubted as natural vagrants at the time, but no evidence of captive 
origin is cited in any of the cases (except for "faded plumage" in one case), 
and what is known of the dates and locations of their occurrences actually 
appear consistent with natural vagrancy. In particular, the records from 1964 
and 1965 occurred during a period of multiple occurrences in nearby 
Massachusetts and elsewhere.

about 1915, Speonk, Suffolk County
Birds of the New York Area, p. 471; John Bull
“shot by duck hunters… mounted specimen still in Westhampton.”
Described by Leroy Wilcox as “in bright plumage” and was considered by Bull to 
have “possibly wandered north or was hurricane borne, but of this we cannot be 
certain.”

3 Oct 1931, Shinnecock Bay, Suffolk County
Birds of the New York Area, p. 471; John Bull
collected by Leroy Wilcox, who described it as “somewhat faded" and regarded by 
Bull as "presumably escaped from captivity.”

14 Nov 1964, Hudson River shore near Coxsackie, Greene County
The Kingbird 15: 49, 1965; Peter P. Wickham
“the bird was able to fly and was seen by numerous observers in this vicinity 
until it was captured Nov 25 and turned over (alive) to the Delmar Game Farm; 
it seems probable that this bird is non-feral, although its origin has not been 
dtermined with certainty.”

The Kingbird 16: 60-61, 1966; Thomas H. Davis and Fred Heath
2 Sep 1965, Mecox Bay; 9 Sep-16 Oct, Shinnecock Inlet, Suffolk County
“probably an escape.”

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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ARC

[nysbirds-l] American Flamingos in New York State

[Shaibal Mitra]

In the excitement over the potential addition of American Flamingo to the New 
York State Checklist, people have been curious about prior records. As far as I 
am aware, there have been four prior occurrences of American Flamingo. All of 
these were doubted as natural vagrants at the time, but no evidence of captive 
origin is cited in any of the cases (except for "faded plumage" in one case), 
and what is known of the dates and locations of their occurrences actually 
appear consistent with natural vagrancy. In particular, the records from 1964 
and 1965 occurred during a period of multiple occurrences in nearby 
Massachusetts and elsewhere.

about 1915, Speonk, Suffolk County
Birds of the New York Area, p. 471; John Bull
“shot by duck hunters… mounted specimen still in Westhampton.”
Described by Leroy Wilcox as “in bright plumage” and was considered by Bull to 
have “possibly wandered north or was hurricane borne, but of this we cannot be 
certain.”

3 Oct 1931, Shinnecock Bay, Suffolk County
Birds of the New York Area, p. 471; John Bull
collected by Leroy Wilcox, who described it as “somewhat faded" and regarded by 
Bull as "presumably escaped from captivity.”

14 Nov 1964, Hudson River shore near Coxsackie, Greene County
The Kingbird 15: 49, 1965; Peter P. Wickham
“the bird was able to fly and was seen by numerous observers in this vicinity 
until it was captured Nov 25 and turned over (alive) to the Delmar Game Farm; 
it seems probable that this bird is non-feral, although its origin has not been 
dtermined with certainty.”

The Kingbird 16: 60-61, 1966; Thomas H. Davis and Fred Heath
2 Sep 1965, Mecox Bay; 9 Sep-16 Oct, Shinnecock Inlet, Suffolk County
“probably an escape.”

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

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Re:[nysbirds-l] Black-throated Gray, Kentucky, and Yellow0throated Warblers Heckcher SP, Suffolk County

[Shaibal Mitra]

On Tuesday 28 May, Mike Vedder found what he was pretty sure was a Kentucky 
Warbler, singing at Heckscher SP, Suffolk County, Long Island. The bird was not 
visible, and he was not able to obtain a recording. He called Patricia J. 
Lindsay, but she was birding Nickerson Beach, Nassau County, and thus unable to 
follow up the report until the following morning. On Wednesday morning, PJL 
readily heard the bird singing to the south of the Forty Foot Road, east of the 
Administration compound and west of where the road bends 90 degrees to the 
north. She called me, working at home, and I quickly joined her. The bird was 
singing constantly and nearer to the road now, and we reported this to the 
local birders as we waited for visual confirmation. Because the bird would sing 
for extended periods without moving from its perch, seeing it required 
patience, waiting until one saw it fly to a new perch that happened to be 
unobstructed by foliage. This accomplished, I turned attention to what sounded 
like a Yellow-throated Warbler, singing in the vicinity. I was not able to see 
this bird as it moved around the area, and I heard it last on the north side of 
the road opposite the Administration compound. We communicated this to our 
local contacts, including the Captree Birding Fiends (sic) and Keith Klein, and 
then returned to our nearby home to work.

Arriving a little later, John Gluth and Keith Klein readily found the Kentucky 
Warbler and turned attention to the YTWA-like song. This individual bird was 
sonsistently difficult to see as it foraged and sang high in the canopy, but as 
they sought it, they were astonished to see (and photograph) a male 
Black-throated Gray Warbler! They got the word out, and I was dragged from my 
desk for a second time that morning, but not before communicating their amazing 
discovery to the listserv.

By the time PJL and I arrived on site at 11:47, the Kentuck Warbler had gone 
silent, but the singer of the YTWA-like song was singing almost constantly, 
though roving about more widely than a territorial Dendroica typically 
would—often around the corner where the 90 degree bend, two-track to the east, 
and Horseshoe Trail to the south intersect, but also as far to the southeast as 
the southern edge of the field east of the two-track. The possibility that this 
singer and the Black-throated Gray Warbler were the same loomed in our minds, 
and I was very desirous of seeing the bird, proving this by pursuing the song 
through the thigh-high grass of the afore-mentioned field when it appeared that 
the bird might be trending off in that direction. (The net result of this 
maneuver was continuous contact with the singer and just one adult male Lone 
Star Tick.)

Fortunately, the singer returned to the area of the 90 degree bend, where John 
and PJL and I were joined by Pat Palladino. Famously eagle-eyed, both Pats 
fixed on the singer and helped John and me get on it. We noted that it was in 
fact the Black-throated Gray Warbler! Singing almost constantly, it was 
relatively easy for newly arriving birders to track it around the area 
southeast of the 90 degree bend, but very difficult to see. In the afternoon, 
it I don’t think it ever ranged as far west or north as it had in the morning.

Two notes about Merlin: While we were waiting for views of the Kentucky Warbler 
in the morning, PJL turned on Merlin to pass the time (my phone is not and 
never has been allowed to think of such things). Although the app picked up in 
real time, and correctly identified, the American Redstarts, Yellow Warblers, 
Red-eyed Vireos, and Gray Catbirds we were hearing—and even discerned an almost 
impossibly distant Eastern Wood-Pewee, it flatly ignored the almost painfully 
loud songs of the Kentucky Warbler! Not even registering the existence of a 
bird at the moments it sang. Conversely, during our later stalking of the 
Black-throated Gray Warbler, Merlin consistently identifed its songs as those 
of Yellow-throated Warbler. My interpretation of these foibles is that the 
algorithm has probably been over-tweaked to emphasize geographical location and 
eBird frequency data (Kentucky Warbler is genuinely rare in Suffolk County, 
whereas Yellow-throated Warbler occurs here regularly). This sort of AI 
stupidity would be an understandable consequence of attempts to solve Merlin’s 
notorious “Philadelphia Vireo Problem,” but it’s worth noting here so that 
future birders might know the indignities our generation is suffering in the 
quest for fully automated bird detection.

08:12 am Thursday the 30th—just go the call from PJL that Suzy Feustel has an 
Olive-sided Flycatcher at Heckscher. Stay Tuned.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-128232517-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
 on behalf of Shaibal Mitra 

Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2024 11:33 AM
To: NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu) 
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Black-throated Gray, Kentucky, and Yellow0throated 
Warblers

[nysbirds-l] Black-throated Gray, Kentucky, and Yellow0throated Warblers Heckcher SP, Suffolk County

[Shaibal Mitra]

Black-throated Gray, Kentucky, and Yellow-throated Warblers  are present this 
morning at Heckscher SP, Suffolk County. They are in the woods along the Forty 
Foot Road, east of Field 1 and Admin compound.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

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[nysbirds-l] Sandwich Tern Nickerson Beach

[Shaibal Mitra]

Patricia Lindsay reports that she and others just observed a breeding-plumaged 
Sandwich Tern at Nickerson Beach, Nassau County. The bird landed briefly and 
then flew off, but people are continuing to watch the loafing flocks.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

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[nysbirds-l] Southern Nassau County CBC

[Shaibal Mitra]

The Southern Nassau County CBC was conducted for the 84th time on 30 December 
2023, by 75 dedicated and talented participants in nine territories. December 
2023 has been one of the (if not the actual) warmest and most ice-free in 
memory, so the results of this particular count, which is held toward the end 
of the count period, and which includes a remarkably broad set of habitats, 
have been anticipated with special interest by New York area birders.

Two trends observed during this month’s preceding regional CBCs were felt very 
strongly in Southern Nassau: (1) marked local absence/low abundance of all 
species with northerly centers of winter abundance, and also of many species 
preferring forest habitats; and (2) prodigious new maxima for many species with 
southerly winter distributions. Common Goldeneye was missed, and Common 
Merganser was eked out in the form of a single individual. Bufflehead, which 
has been counted into four digits on this count, totaled 63, the lowest in more 
than two decades. Seventeen Horned Grebes were the most since 2019-2020, but 
still far below historical averages. Red-necked Grebe was missed for the third 
year in a row, after occurring each of the previous five. Landbirds with 
northerly winter ranges were also scarce: just seven American Tree Sparrows and 
63 Slate-colored Juncos were recorded (both were formerly counted in 
multi-hundreds); Snow Bunting fell below 100 for the sixth consecutive year. 
Forest birds with markedly low totals included Downy (55, 59% of ten-year 
average) and Hairy Woodpecker (8, 65% TYA), Black-capped Chickadee (64, 46% 
TYA), Tufted Titmouse (7, 31% TYA, and the lowest since 1968-1969), and 
White-breasted Nuthatch (9, 23% TYA).

Long Island happens to occupy a geographic position where winter temperatures 
trend near the freezing point of water. Because of this, relatively modest 
increases in average temperature translate into major changes in the extent and 
duration of freezing condistions, and, consequently, in the abundance of 
species sensitive to freezing conditions. Three Clapper Rails in two 
territories was a good count for this frequently missed species, as were 31 
Great Egrets (second only to 49 in 2001-2002, also a mild season). But 116 
Greater Yellowlegs and 791 Double-crested Cormorants are simply astonishing. 
The latter was routinely missed as recently as the early 1980s. Many of the 
unusual species summarized below also belong in this category. Other high 
counts deserving mention include 1550 Lesser Scaup (mostly in a mega-flock of 
more than a thousand in Five Towns) and 13 Orange-crowned Warblers, distributed 
across seven territories.

Bad misses were very very few: Common Goldeneye (cw), Red-necked Grebe, and 
Chipping Sparrow were the only species missed among those recorded on more than 
half of the past ten counts. Largely absent this year, Red-breasted Nuthatch 
was believed to have been missed at the compilation, but proved to have been 
found on count day in this very intensely birded part of the world. At the same 
time, the highlights were many and varied. Although the interior territories on 
this count often excel, and did very well this year, too, the outer beaches led 
the way in terms of excitement this year.

Tobay led all nine territories with nine saves, followed by Short with seven, 
and Atlantic with three. Baldwin (including Loop) led the interior areas with 
five saves, followed by Five Towns and Massapequa with two each and Hempstead 
and Mitchell with one each. Beginning with the species that are not truly rare 
on the Southern Nassau CBC, we note the number of individuals (if more than 
one), the territory, and the number of times it has been recorded, out of 84 
iterations. This last number vividly illustrates the disparate histories of so 
many species over the past century—for instance, Common Merganser was once 
common, with several counts over 250, whereas Cackling Goose was first recorded 
in 2004-2005.

Snow Goose (3, Five Towns, 48th record)
Cackling Goose (Baldwin, 7th record)
Wood Duck (Baldwin, 43rd record)
Eurasian Green-winged Teal (Baldwin, 17th record; not included in species total)
Redhead (Hempstead, 66th record)
King Eider (Short, 24th record)
Harlequin Duck (8, Atlantic, 45th record)
Common Merganser (Massapequa, 79th record)
Semipalmated Plover (5,* Short, 12th record)
American Woodcock (Massapequa, 50th record)
Dovekie (Short, 13th record)
Black-legged Kittiwake (Tobay, 29th record)
Laughing Gull (Atlantic, 15th record)
Lesser Black-backed Gull (Tobay, 24th record)
American Bittern (3, Tobay, 73rd record)
Snowy Egret (Baldwin, 26th record)
Barn Owl (Atlantic, 58th record)
Eastern Screech-Owl (Baldwin, 32nd record)
Northern Saw-whet Owl (Short, 42nd record)
Purple Finch (Tobay, 45th record)
Pine Siskin(2, Tobay, 42nd record)
Lapland Longspur (Short, 45th record)
Eastern Meadowlark (Mitchell, 67th record)
Common Yellowthroat (Tobay, 23rd record)
Palm Warbler (3, Sho

[nysbirds-l] Tom Johnson

[Shaibal Mitra]

The birding world is suspended.

The sudden death of Tom Johnson rends the veil of ordinary life. We are bereft. 
I had hoped to win some and lose many debates with him in our future decades of 
life, over identification, taxonomy, or anything. It is so easy to be wrong, 
but I would never have guessed that our innocently anticipated future, shared 
with his sonorous voice and masterful birding touch, was ever in doubt.

Among so many impressions, I remember his enthusiasm at a talk I gave at the 
NYSOA meeting in Rochester, in September 2008. He and our own Long Island 
phenom, Shawn Billerman, were undergrads at Cornell then, recipients of the 
Lillian Stoner Award—our trusted guardians of the future. The next day, they 
found a Magnificent Frigatebird on Cayuga Lake, which Pat and I and Alex Wilson 
chased breathlessly and ultimately saw.

Tom was a giant in our world, one we needed and still need.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

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Re: [nysbirds-l] Croton Point Park warblers

[Shaibal Mitra]

One might expect that the Canadian wildfires would be likely to displace birds 
and other wildlife, and observations like these are potentially very valuable. 
Many readers of this list are intimately familiar with their local sites and in 
position to detect similar kinds of unusual occurrences involving forest birds 
this summer. The Kingbird Regional Editors would appreciate reports of this 
kind from thoughtful observers willing to provide some context from their local 
perspectives.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-127553555-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
 on behalf of Joseph Wallace 

Sent: Friday, July 7, 2023 11:44 AM
To: NYSbirds-L@cornell.edu 
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Croton Point Park warblers


* This email originates from a sender outside of CUNY. Verify the sender before 
replying or clicking on links and attachments. *

This park has become quite a magnet for unexpected warbler species the last 
couple of weeks, especially singing males in lovely plumage. So far I've seen 
Magnolia, Northern Parula, Black-and-White, and Ovenbird...and though they 
don't all flag as rare, I bird this park a lot, and this seems very unusual 
here in this season. (They don't look or act like early migrants--is the 
consensus that these are birds displaced by the Canadian wildfires, or some 
other cause?) Seems worth keeping an eye out in the park for others as well
--Joe Wallace
P.S. Andrew Baksh's heartening report from Jamaica Bay reminded me of the 
Father's Day essay I wrote for Saw Mill River Audubon--and posted here--a few 
years back, about my Dad and that wonderful preserve. As it happens, he and it 
also appear in my latest piece, which is more about the 
places--landscapes--that speak most deeply to us. Dad had his, I have mine, and 
I always wonder if you all have one, too. Apologies if this is too o/t, but if 
you're interested: 
https://www.blog.sawmillriveraudubon.org/our-inner-landscapes/.
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Re: [nysbirds-l] Captree June Count, 3 June 2023

[Shaibal Mitra]

Addendum:


Several locally rare breeding species were recorded, including a pair of 
Roseate Terns (both unbanded, as is generally true of the birds we see in 
southwestern Suffolk, which are suspected to be connected demographically to 
the old Cedar Beach colony), the now venerable Yellow-throated Warbler(s) along 
the lower Connetquot River, and several species in the Farmingdale 
“grasslands.” It has been many years since Horned Larks have nested on our 
portion of the barrier beach, but a few persist in fragments of habitat on the 
mainland, and one was detected this year, along with one Grasshopper and six 
Savannah Sparrows. All of these species are at least scarce and local more 
generally on Long Island, so their rarity is easy to perceive. In contrast, 
many generally common and widespread species are concerningly rare within our 
circle: Whip-poor-will (1), Wood Thrush (1, just the fourth record in nine 
years), Field Sparrow (2), Black-and-white Warbler (2), Prairie Warbler (1), 
and Scarlet Tanager (0).


From: bounce-127458170-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
 on behalf of Patricia Lindsay 

Sent: Monday, June 5, 2023 5:05 PM
To: NYS Birds 
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Captree June Count, 3 June 2023


* This email originates from a sender outside of CUNY. Verify the sender before 
replying or clicking on links and attachments. *

On Saturday 3 Jun 2023, thirty-one observers conducted the Captree June Count 
in southwestern Suffolk County, LI. It was the first cloudy day in many days, 
but without rain. A north-northeast breeze contributed to productive 
seawatching without unduly impeding the detection of marshbirds and landbirds. 
The early date of this year’s count fortuitously coincided with a definite 
flight of Neotropical migrant passerines, and the resulting total of 142 
species easily bested the previous record of 138 (2021) and greatly exceeded 
the nine-year average of 129.



Five new species and one new supra-specific taxon were added to the cumulative 
list of the “modern era,” 2015-present: Eurasian Collared-Dove, Lesser 
Yellowlegs (5), Red-necked Phalarope (377), Least Flycatcher, and Magnolia 
Warbler (4). The flight of Red-necked Phalaropes observed from Robert Moses 
State Park on 3 Jun followed several days of much higher than usual occurrence 
along Long Island’s ocean shore and was an astonishing highlight for those who 
witnessed it.



Among 26 new maxima, the most notable were 30 Wood Duck, 17 Black Duck, 33 Wild 
Turkey, 83 Chimney Swifts (perhaps reflecting at least in part a late push of 
migrants, as swifts and several species of swallows have been seen migrating 
along the outer beaches 2-4 Jun), 129 Black Skimmer (observed within the newly 
expanding Common Tern colony at Democrat Point, where it is hoped they will 
nest), 275 Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, 461 Common Grackle, 14 Blackpoll Warbler, and 
15 American Redstart. Both of the possible explanations for the high count of 
the last species are likely not obvious to most observers and deserve some 
explanation. One possibility is that this species is following the examples of 
Warbling Vireo and Northern Rough-winged Swallow in expanding its breeding 
distribution into the coastal plain of south-central Long Island, where all 
three were previously (and somewhat inexplicably) absent or nearly absent as 
breeders. The second is that the total reflects mostly migrants, as American 
Redstart occurs in the latest spring flights on Long Island, along with more 
familiar late passage-migrants like several recorded on this year’s CJC (e.g., 
Least and Acadian flycatchers, Magnolia and Blackpoll Warblers)--but also like 
several other common breeding species whose late-migrating populations are less 
obvious and familiar (e.g., Red-eyed Vireo and Common Yellowthroat).



One late migrant species that was decidedly not augmented much by birds in 
passage was Eastern Wood-Pewee, which was among nine regularly recorded species 
tallied at a new minimum for the modern period of the count. Others in this 
category that deserve watching include Clapper Rail, Downy Woodpecker, 
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Brown Thrasher (completely absent from the mainland and 
represented by just four individuals on the barrier beaches), Eastern Towhee, 
Baltimore Oriole, and Prairie Warbler. All of these were among the 18 species 
whose totals were 70% or less than their nine-year averages. Others in this 
category included Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Whip-poor-will, Field Sparrow, 
Brown-headed Cowbird, and Indigo Bunting. The similarity in the habitats 
favored by many of these species makes their coincident low abundances 
concerning.



No fewer than 19 regularly occurring species were tallied at 150% or more of 
their nine-year averages. Besides the new maxima noted above, it is worth 
drawing attention to 46 Common Loon (still migrating heavily along the ocean 
shore), 583 Common Tern, 113 Forster’s Tern, and 116 Purple Marti

[nysbirds-l] Curlew Sandpiper Jones Beach West End--Update

[Shaibal Mitra]

The flock of Sanderlings, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Dunlin, and Red Knots with 
which the Curlew Sandpiper was associating took off and broke into multiple 
parts around 3:35. We tracked the CUSA as long as we could, but ultimately lost 
track of it. A number of searchers are on site and will likely post up-dates, 
especially if positive.

The spectacularly intensely colored bird was found by Damon Brundage.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

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RE: [nysbirds-l] White-winged Juncos

[Shaibal Mitra]

Hi Andrew and all,

Banding birds at the Fire Island Lighthouse, I encountered a few juncos with 
white wingbars. Invariably they were like Slate-colored hyemalis in other 
respects, whereas genuine aikeni White-winged Juncos are much larger and with 
significantly more white in the rectrices. In other words, it's a rare but 
regular variation among Slate-colored Juncos.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-127064654-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-127064654-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Andrew Block 
[ablock22...@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 4, 2023 5:00 PM
To: NYS Birds
Subject: [nysbirds-l] White-winged Juncos

Hi all,

Does anyone know how common Slate-colored Juncos with white wing bars are?  
Over the years I've seen a few in NY that have them but otherwise look like 
Slate-coloreds.  Today I had another I observered for awhile at Ward Acres Park 
in New Rochelle that sure looked good for White-winged Juco, but I always have 
Slate-coloreds with wing bars in the back of my mind.  Any ideas?

Andrew

Andrew Block
Consulting Naturalist
Yonkers, New York
www.flickr.com/photos/conuropsis/albums
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[nysbirds-l] The 83rd Southern Nassau County CBC, 31 Dec 2022

[Shaibal Mitra]

Dating to 1932 , the Southern Nassau County CBC encompasses some of the most 
intensively birded sites in New York State. About 80 observers conducted this 
count in coastal southwestern Long Island for the 83rd time on Saturday, 31 Dec 
2022. For the first time since 28 December 2019, we gathered for an in-person 
compilation. Otto’s Sea Grill was not available, but the Green Turtle in 
Uniondale had plenty of space for us to catch up and run the numbers. We keenly 
felt the absence of Sy Schiff, the Dean of South Nassau birding, for whom that 
December 2019 compilation was his last. We also marked the loss of longtime 
participant Shane Blodgett, who passed away this past September. One measure of 
this count is the breadth and depth of its personnel, which includes some of 
the most knowledgeable and talented birders from a large portion of 
southeastern New York, from Dutchess, Westchester, and Manhattan to Shane’s 
home county of Brooklyn (which was strongly represented this year), as well as 
Queens and Suffolk Counties. 
In recent decades the Long Island region has experienced an odd 
micro-seasonal pattern in early winter, in which the early portion of the CBC 
period (ca. 14-20 Dec) has tended to be markedly cold and windy in contrast to 
the latter portion (ca. 30 Dec-5 Jan), which has tended to be warm and wet in 
many years. This pattern was very strongly marked this year, with adverse 
consequences of various kinds for many regional counts. In addition to the 
strong front preceding the weekend of 17-18 Dec, a powerful bomb cyclone passed 
on 23 Dec, leaving unusually cold temperatures in its wake. The deep freeze was 
of short duration, however, and it had at most subtle direct impacts on this 
circle’s avifauna, probably reducing numbers of various shorebirds and 
waterfowl (but see below). Indirect impacts arose from the chilled ocean and 
bays and extensive ice cover on the ponds, which cooked up fog for us under 
100% humidity and temperatures as high as 52 F. Saturday’s count was yet 
another one spent hoping, that forecast rain would hold off for a few hours, 
and struggling, in foggy and rainy conditions. A belt of heavy rain at 06:45 
impacted nocturnal birding, but over most of the circle, rain remained trace to 
light until about 2:30 p.m.
The fog greatly reduced detection of many common and abundant species, 
including many waterfowl, shorebirds, gulls, and raptors, and it was directly 
responsible for two of our worst misses, Common Goldeneye and Common Merganser, 
which were known to be present but could not be seen.* Otherwise, bad misses 
were relatively few, involving just five additional species recorded on more 
than half of recent counts: Redhead (8/10 years), Snow Goose (7/10), Red-necked 
Grebe (7/10), Wood Duck (6/10), and Chipping Sparrow (6/10).
With one spectacular exception, the many highlights of the day were not 
really surprises. they consisted mainly of either irruptive species (such as 3 
Dovekies spaced along the three ocean-front territories, 14 Red Crossbills in 
Atlantic, and a Pine Siskin in Five Towns), or else they were scarce species 
that are routinely sought on this count.** Deserving of emphasis in the latter 
category are Black-headed Gull (found this time in Atlantic), a regionally rare 
species that we have recorded in eight of the past ten years; Common Gallinule 
(returning for a fourth year in Massapequa--and, remarkably, found to have been 
joined by a second, immature bird, the day after the count); and Yellow-crowned 
Night-Heron (recorded in six of the past ten years, all in Baldwin). Like the 
small number of bad misses, the long list of good finds listed under ** is a 
testament to the skill and perseverance of our participants. The mind-bending 
exception, possibly a first CBC record for Long Island, was a Northern Fulmar 
seen by two observers in Atlantic.
Despite the weather and the negative population trends shown by many 
species in our region, there were also many ten-year maxima (13 species) and 
other high counts greater than 140% of recent averages (10 species). The raw 
total of 1968 Razorbills involved at least 1500 birds and is consistent with a 
region-wide incursion this season. Similarly, 2145 Bonaparte’s Gulls, 
reminiscent of a bygone age of abundance, are part of a region-wide event this 
year. Astonishing, but part of a year-over-year upward trend, were 404 
Double-crested Cormorants. Like the Red Crossbills and Pine Siskin mentioned 
above, many of the high counts involved irruptive forest birds that show 
correlated abundance on our counts: 232 Blue Jay (ten-year max), 41 Tufted 
Titmouse (ten-year max and the most since the epic irruption of 1995-1996), 65 
White-breasted Nuthatch, 61 Red-breasted Nuthatch, 13 Brown Creeper, 38 
Golden-crowned Kinglet, and 3 Purple Finch (a save in Baldwin). The icterids 
tend to swing between feast and famine here, and this year was good for Rusty 
Bla

[nysbirds-l] Block Island Veterans Day Count 2022 (extralimital)

[Shaibal Mitra]

Although Block Island lies just outside of the boundaries of New York State, we 
hope that our long-term studies of its winter season bird populations might be 
of interest to birders interested in migration on adjacent Long Island, as well 
as other parts of New York. Beginning in 1996, a group of birders began 
bracketing the venerable Block Island CBC with counts in November, around 
Veterans Day, and in February, around Presidents Day. A major goal of the VDC 
has been to test our perception that, for many migratory species, abundance 
reaches low levels in November, only to increase abruptly in December, 
following the onset of inhospitable conditions to the north. Similarly, a goal 
of the PDC has been to assess the late-winter survival of the many half-hardy 
birds recorded each year on the CBC. We chose Block Island because, as a small 
island, it lacks resident populations of many species that are common on the 
mainland, making it easier to detect inputs and outputs via directed movements 
and mortality, but the same methodology can be applied easily anywhere in the 
region: replicating all or part of one's CBC effort in November and February is 
likely to be very informative.

Nine observers conducted the 27th annual Block Island Veterans Day Count (VDC) 
on 14 November 2022. The weather was clear, with brisk northwesterly winds and 
moderate temperatures (38-46 F).
These conditions suggested a potential for the overnight arrival of 
nocturnal migrants, but two observers present at the North End at first light 
noted just a few small flocks of American Robins and Red-winged Blackbirds 
struggling to leave the island. Both of these species (and many others; see 
Table 3) were recorded in unusually low numbers this year, and the addition of 
80 Robins and 40 Red-wings in morning flight mitigated what would otherwise 
have been exceptionally low totals. It often seems that either waterbirds or 
landbirds, but not both, will show poorly on a given day, but on this day, low 
counts were the rule across most of the checklist. Table 3 shows all species 
with totals less than two-thirds their long-term averages. Notably, the 
unusually low counts of waterfowl and shorebirds tended to involve species 
whose abundance has been trending upward over the 27-year history of the count, 
whereas many of the other low counts involved species that have been trending 
downward for many years. Among the species with significantly lower than 
average totals were no fewer than 16 that average more than 100 individuals per 
year. Unsurprisingly, this year’s count of total birds was the lowest ever, at 
4,118.
Interestingly, the thicket-inhabiting species whose facultative 
early-winter movements have been a major focus of the Block Island winter 
counts, were found at low abundance this year. The effort-adjusted metric of 
landbirds per party-mile on foot was just 54.4 and would have fallen below the 
27-year minimum of 54.1 had it not been for those small flocks of migrating 
Robins and Red-wings. Within the thickets, both species of kinglets, Gray 
Catbird, White-throated and Song Sparrows, and many others were counted in low 
numbers. In many past years we have observed dramatic increases in December 
among these species, indicative of post-migratory dispersal, probably in 
response to environmental variables such as snow, freezing, and depletion of 
food resources.
This year’s worst miss was Cedar Waxwing, which has been missed only 
once before on the VDC. It was disappointing to miss species such as American 
Pipit, Snow Bunting, Pine Siskin, and Tree Swallow. All of these are erratic on 
the VDC but are often numerous when they are present at all. Their absence 
across the board contributed to the overall paucity of birds (Table 2). Even 
so, the overall species total was 95, which is a very typical number for the 
extremely volatile VDC, which unpredictably exceeds 110 or even 120 in 
favorable years.
Several unusual species were recorded, but nothing at all surprising, 
apart from a distantly seen swallow that was suspected but not confirmed as a 
Cave Swallow. Otherwise, two second-ever VDC records involved rapidly 
increasing species, Bald Eagle and Common Raven. An off-the-charts tally of 14 
Northern Saw-whet Owls came via Scott Comings’ banding work and is not as 
surprising as it looks in comparison to our usually hit or miss effort. The 
most surprising birds of the day were probably two Northern Parulas foraging 
together near Old Harbor (Table 3).
High counts, more than 1.5 times a species’ average, mostly involved 
species of low to moderate abundance that have been increasing over time (Table 
4). One exception was Ruddy Duck, which has averaged 156 birds per year, but 
which came in at an astonishing 640 this year. Four Orange-crowned Warblers 
would have been a surprise 20 years ago but not anymore.

I'm not sure of the attached Word file will reach the lis

[nysbirds-l] Limpkin in Lewiston, Niagara County

[Shaibal Mitra]

>From Willie D'Anna, who asked us to post:

"There is a Limpkin at Lewiston landing (Niagara River), currently hiding in 
weeds and shrubs while eating snails. He is right next to the blue-gray harbor 
master building, which is front of the boat ramp, so just a few feet above the 
water level and ten yards from water's edge. Been here a week, apparently. 
Found by Frank Chapman, a fishing guide."

Willie sent a dropped pin which I am not able to include here in this email, 
but which will be shared shortly.

Shai Mitra and Patricia Lindsay
Bay Shore
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[nysbirds-l] Townsend's Solitaire at Oak Beach, Suffolk--Not Seen

[Shaibal Mitra]

Despite considerable effort by many, the Townsend's Solitaire found yesterday 
at Oak Beach, Suffolk County, by Arie Gilbert has NOT been seen so far this 
morning.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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[nysbirds-l] Seatuck Long Island Birding Challenge

[Shaibal Mitra]

The 9th Annual Seatuck LI Birding Challenge was conducted on 17 September this 
year, in very pleasant weather. Cool and cloudy to start in the morning, the 
day warmed up into the mid 70s under mostly sunny skies, with low humidity. 
With northeast winds early, followed by a warm, sunny afternoon, the day was 
not especially conducive for active migration, despite the perfect date, but 
many migrants were nonetheless detected, perhaps remaining after the good 
flights of the previous two days. Enthusiasm was high all the way to the five 
o’clock hour when the compilation and celebrations began at the lovely Scully 
mansion, in person for the first time since 2019. A special treat this year was 
Enrico’s presentation about the history of how this precious parcel of land 
came to be preserved, followed by a tour of the mansion.

Competing this year were seven teams with a total of 28 participants. Retaining 
the “covid era” rules for limited-area coverage as part of the new norm, we had 
two Island-wide teams, single teams representing Queens, Nassau, and Western 
Suffolk County, and two teams in Eastern Suffolk. The overall total of 166 
species was very close to our long-term average of 167. It included three new 
species, Long-tailed Duck, Bonaparte’s Gull, and Black-headed Gull, bringing 
the cumulative list to 247 species over the nine years.

Few if any real rarities were recorded, and the highlights recounted by the 
various teams mostly involved enjoyable experiences with species expected as to 
date and location, and with team-mates. Many participants noted the relative 
abundance of Cape May Warblers this fall, and the two teams that visited 
Jamaica Bay appreciated the excellent conditions at the East Pond this year.

Pteam Ptarmigeddon competed island-wide and took first place for the overall 
species total for a remarkable sixth time. Their total of 131 species included 
7 “saves” (species not seen by any other team). The High Flyers had the second 
highest species total, 110 in Queens County, and contributed 4 saves. The Aphid 
Eaters, working Nassau County, had 99 species and 6 saves, and the Four Harbors 
Herons came in with 90 species in Nassau and Suffolk (so nominally 
island-wide), including two saves. Captree Counters Imperiál came in with 108 
species within the Western Suffolk category and won the “Hunters’ Hoard” prize 
for most saves, 12 in all. The Savage Trackers and Erin G’s junior team birded 
Eastern Suffolk County; each contributed one save, and the Savage Trackers won 
the area prize with 42 species. At this stage in the evolution of the 
Challenge, it occurs to us that the collaborative dimension has been growing in 
importance, as regionally focused efforts complement each other and contribute 
toward the overall species total as a collective achievement each year, 
analogous to CBCs.

Thanks to Enrico Nardone, Steve Walsh, and the Seatuck team for organizing and 
hosting this enjoyable friendly competition. For more information on this 
important organization and information on this annual event, go to

www.seatuck.org/birding-challenge

We hope to see everyone back next year, and as always, we welcome new teams to 
join us!

Pat and Shai
Bay Shore, NY

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[nysbirds-l] Dead Shearwaters on the Beach

[Shaibal Mitra]

This morning Patricia Lindsay and I found one dead Great Shearwater and four 
dead Sooty Shearwaters along ca. two miles of beachfront at Democrat Point, 
southwestern Suffolk County. Mentioning this to others in our circle, I learned 
second-hand of reports today of many dead shearwaters along the beach in the 
Montauk area. If you are visiting the beaches over the next few days, please 
take a few minutes to check the wrack line for these birds. If unsure of the 
identification, please take a photo and feel free to contact me. If the bird is 
in fresh condition (checking the eyes is an easy way to tell), consider 
salvaging it for Paul Sweet at the American Museum of Natural History. If you 
cover some ground searching, be sure to measure or estimate the distance 
covered.

Many on this list will remember June 2017, when there was a spectacular inshore 
movement of Great Shearwaters along the whole Long Island coast, including much 
further west than usual, followed by the discovery of large numbers of dead 
birds.

We also saw living Great and Cory's Shearwaters this morning, our first of the 
year.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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RE: [nysbirds-l] Cormorants moving

[Shaibal Mitra]

Josh,

Thanks for sharing this observation. We also noticed flocks of DC Cormorants 
migrating over Long Island yesterday. For me and many others, observing 
different kinds of movements is equally if not more interesting than seeing 
different species.

This morning I saw over 200 White-winged Scoters migrating over the ocean at 
Robert Moses SP, Suffolk County. This evening might be a good opportunity to 
see overland flights of species like White-winged Scoter, as well as Brant and 
others.

There were all kinds of movements at RMSP this morning: DC Cormorants and 
Common Loons migrating eastward; immature gulls (including a Bonaparte's Gull) 
plodding eastward; the first Wilson's Storm-Petrels, arriving from the 
Antarctic, also heading east; a smattering of Neotropical migrants re-orienting 
westward, highlighted by great looks at a Bay-breasted Warbler in overland 
flight; and enigmatic things that nobody understands, such six Red-bellied 
Woodpeckers and a Blue Jay flying westward, as though they had arrived 
overnight from over the ocean, like the warblers!

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore





From: bounce-126554790-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-126554790-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Joshua Malbin 
[joshuamal...@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2022 8:43 PM
To: nysbirds-l
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Cormorants moving

Nothing rare, but all day today we were watching vee-shaped flocks of 
Double-crested Cormorants apparently migrating over Jamaica Bay, all heading 
northeast. Flocks were 50 to 150 birds strong and just kept coming. Over the 
course of the afternoon we must have seen 2,000 or more.

Good birding,

Joshua Malbin
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[nysbirds-l] A Memorable Crossing of the Long Island Sound

[Shaibal Mitra]

I crossed from Orient Point to New London on the 11:00 am ferry (Susan Anne) 
yesterday. As I have mentioned before in this forum, this passage can be 
remarkably birdless--and so it was. The only notable birds were a simmer of 
five Turkey Vultires over the northeast tip of Plum Island, some Gannets where 
they don't go except in migration, and one Northern Rough-winged Swallow, 
carefully studied as it tracked our course southwest to northeast mid-sound, 
just off the starboard beam.

Knowing these waters and the surrounding lands all my life, I almost always 
spend some time studying the appearance of things when I'm there. Yesterday's 
crossing was almost hallucinatory in its visuals. This area is exceptionally 
well suited to mirages, and other optical effects, arising from thermal 
inversions, and I've seen quite a few interesting things of this sort over 
decades of sound crossings. But yesterday, with a layer of warm air lying 
stably atop the water-cooled blanket atop the glassy and windless sound, 
produced a uniquely amazing array of effects. Familiar landmarks in the 
distance such as the Montauk peninsula and Fishers Island--and even objects 
ordinarily invisible from the ferry's route, beyond the curvature of the Earth, 
like Block Island and its wind turbines--were subject to every effect I know: 
Layered superior mirages (Fata Morgana), looming, towering, stooping, and even 
(I think) inferior mirages. Through eight power binoculars, the impression of 
this familiar place was utterly strange and disorienting! I did my best to 
capture some of the effects by phone-binning. Most of my captures were aimed at 
familiar landmarks, such as the Montauk Point Light, Camp Hero radar tower, 
Montauk Village water tower, and Hither Hills radar towers.

Although off-topic for birds, i thought I would sharemy images of this 
memorable experience:

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjzKEP1

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore


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Please submit your observations to eBird:
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RE:[nysbirds-l] Mottled Duck Ketcham's Creek, Southwest Suffolk County

[Shaibal Mitra]

Ernst has posted the following suggestions regarding parking to the WhatsApp 
groups:

"Being that tomorrow is Saturday there will for sure be a lot of people chasing 
the Mottled Duck. It's a sensitive site with limited street side parking in a 
residential neighborhood. A lot of residents will be home tomorrow. Please be 
respectful of them. The police and public safety drove by a few times today so 
neighbors have probably already started calling. The bird has most often be 
viewed from the area where I posted the pin earlier. The view from there is 
through phrags, so birders have tended to get a bit bunched up there, standing 
in the road. Cars can speed down that road, so please be careful. It would be 
best if no one parks close to that pin, especially not directly across from the 
best viewing spots where everyone will congregate. It will become a tight 
squeeze for cars driving through. Parking a few blocks away on side streets 
could help. There is a parking lot behind a closed bank at 400 Montauk Highway 
where you can park without any hassle and it's only about a 4 block walk to the 
pin location. Across the street from the bank is a Stop n Shop with a lot of 
parking. Be really wary of traffic if you're crossing away from the traffic 
light. Thanks! The MODU and the female MALL it's paired with were often out of 
view for long periods of time throughout the day, but when they came out into 
the open, they were quite accommodating to viewers and relatively close."

From: bounce-126467769-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-126467769-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Shaibal Mitra 
[shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu]
Sent: Friday, April 8, 2022 10:45 AM
To: NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu)
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Mottled Duck Ketcham's Creek, Southwest Suffolk County

Ernst Mutchnick found what he suspected as a Mottled Duck at Ketcham's Creek, 
southwest Suffolk County, on the evening of Tuesday, 5 April. This is a tricky 
identification, given hybridization between Mallards and Black Ducks, and 
between Mallards and Mottled Ducks, among the varied contenders among Big Brown 
Ducks.

Efforts to re-find it throughout the day on Wed and Thu were unsuccessful, but 
this male bird was present (with a female Mallard) this morning, and it has 
been visible off and on throughout the morning.

The bird appears quite typical of the nominate, Florida subspecies, showing the 
characteristic black gape mark, a pale face with very fine streaking on the 
upper cheek and a clear throat; a very narrow white rear border to the speculum 
(and no visible white at the front edge), and no signs of whiteness or 
curliness in the tail feathers.

Photos are available here:

https://flic.kr/p/2nd8cNZ

This is a sensitive site with limited streetside parking in a residential 
neighborhood. Please be careful and courteous.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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Please submit your observations to eBird:
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Please submit your observations to eBird:
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[nysbirds-l] Mottled Duck Ketcham's Creek, Southwest Suffolk County

[Shaibal Mitra]

Ernst Mutchnick found what he suspected as a Mottled Duck at Ketcham's Creek, 
southwest Suffolk County, on the evening of Tuesday, 5 April. This is a tricky 
identification, given hybridization between Mallards and Black Ducks, and 
between Mallards and Mottled Ducks, among the varied contenders among Big Brown 
Ducks.

Efforts to re-find it throughout the day on Wed and Thu were unsuccessful, but 
this male bird was present (with a female Mallard) this morning, and it has 
been visible off and on throughout the morning.

The bird appears quite typical of the nominate, Florida subspecies, showing the 
characteristic black gape mark, a pale face with very fine streaking on the 
upper cheek and a clear throat; a very narrow white rear border to the speculum 
(and no visible white at the front edge), and no signs of whiteness or 
curliness in the tail feathers.

Photos are available here:

https://flic.kr/p/2nd8cNZ

This is a sensitive site with limited streetside parking in a residential 
neighborhood. Please be careful and courteous.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm
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ARCHIVES:
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Please submit your observations to eBird:
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RE: [nysbirds-l] Is the Old Field Point Bird a Euro Herring Gull or a Hybrid LBBG x HERG?

[Shaibal Mitra]

Hi all,

Thank you for the feedback, to which I'll offer three quick points.

First, Wayne is completely correct--in yesterday's post, I was definitely 
speaking from a North Atlantic perspective. It is certainly true that I 
neglected the many places in the world where isolation does break down in 
Larus, but I wanted to emphasize the many, many places where Larus gulls show 
strong isolation. Furthermore, even GWGU show isolation; when they migrate 
south and encounter wymani WEGU colonies, they don't just stick around and pair 
up. And when wymani WEGU disperse north into the breeding ranges of Olympic 
Gulls and GWGU, they don't get confused and pair up with them. Our knowledge of 
hybrids between LBBG and the various Herring Gulls is very limited and largely 
speculative. At the very least, I hope we all agree that the Old Field Point 
bird cannot be accepted as a hybrid!

Second, regarding certainty/uncertainty in identification. we should strive for 
consistency of approach. By definition, if some individuals can't be identified 
to species (which is true), then the proportion of individuals that can't be 
identified to subspecies will be greater. The zone of uncertainty must be 
defined by observable patterns of variability in populations of known identity. 
In this case, I'm still not aware of anything inconsistent with identification 
as L. a. argentatus, whereas there is much inconsistent with other hypotheses. 
As Karlo notes, it was a matter of luck (and Patrice's skill) that this 
individual is distinctive--many argenteus would surely be overlooked 
completely. Some people have commented that the mantle tone seems like it might 
be too dark for argentatus. Based on Malling Olsen and Larsson and photos 
available online, I don't agree. Be sure to look at multiple different series 
of photos of the Old Field Point bird--photographs can be misleading in this 
particular gray area (pun intended).

Finally, Dick Veit and Simon Perkins collected first-winter argenteus (not 
argentatus, as printed in Birds of Massachusetts) on Nantucket Island (very 
close to Long Island), probably round the early 80s. I recall Dick saying that 
multiple birds were present, and fairly distinctive at that time, when LBBG was 
still very rare. They have also been identified on Newfoundland. There seems 
little doubt that European Herring Gulls occur at least rarely in eastern North 
America, but possible regularly. To me it doesn't matter if they are split or 
not; the goal is to identify the population from which the bird comes.

Best,
Shai



From: Timothy Healy [tp...@cornell.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, March 8, 2022 10:53 AM
To: akmi...@aol.com
Cc: Shaibal Mitra; birdw...@listserv.ksu.edu; NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu
Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Is the Old Field Point Bird a Euro Herring Gull or a 
Hybrid LBBG x HERG?

This bird has certainly proven to be a fascinating case study, and the 
discussion across the various forums has been enlightening. I always appreciate 
the opportunity to learn from one of these community identification efforts, 
and I'm grateful for public venues like the listserv where experts can hash out 
the details in the open air. The specter of hybridization always hangs over 
discussion of unusual gulls. Documented hybrid swarms like the "Olympic Gulls" 
of the West Coast illustrate the need for caution when it comes to assigning 
birds to specific categories. I agree that mixed parentage should be considered 
with due diligence, but likewise that it should not be the default answer for 
any individual that is perceived as looking "off." Many of these Larus species, 
especially the Herring gull complex, are so wildly variable that they can 
account for many atypical birds even without getting into the muddy waters of 
hybrids, potential backcrosses, and the like.

The case that has been made for this particular individual being a European 
Herring Gull is compelling, and this conclusion of this analysis has been 
backed, at least tentatively, by a few European birders who I've seen chiming 
in on different gull ID groups. I do wonder if we'll be able to gather enough 
evidence to surpass the threshold of "acceptability" for such an exceptional 
record, especially considering that the European taxa are likely candidates for 
a split (or according to some authorities, already separated at the species 
level) and thus a potential state record of note. Is there a precedence or 
protocol for NYSARC treatment of eminently splittable subspecies? If nothing 
else, I would encourage anyone who is interested and able to continue the 
collaborative study of this singular individual while it is still with us. As 
Shai mentioned in previous posts, some of the finer details of soft parts and 
primary patterns could still serve to be nailed down more conclusively. I did 
my bes

[nysbirds-l] Is the Old Field Point Bird a Euro Herring Gull or a Hybrid LBBG x HERG?

[Shaibal Mitra]

 intermediate. It must be remembered that statement 1 is not 
based on comparing the putative hybrids with birds of known identity (of which 
almost none are known); it is an hypothesis regarding birds of unknown 
identity, chosen because of their intermediate appearance. I fully accept that 
these probably include actual hybrids, but they also probably include a motley 
by-catch of pale-end graellsii (North American LBBGs are oddly variable in 
mantle color, so tossing off the pale ones as hybrids is a wrong emboyo), 
European Herring Gulls, Yellow-legged Gulls, and hybrids involving completely 
different taxa. But even if all of the putative LBBG x HERG hybrids are really 
hybrids, they are by no means common. Furthermore, just as we are probably 
overstating the frequency of hybrids by lumping in other things, we are 
probably NOT over-looking actual hybrids. In closely related species like 
these, hybrids are unlikely NOT to be intermediate in general, and especially 
in quantitative characters such as size and shape. These considerations also 
have implications for statement 2, which must now be understood as referring to 
extremes of variation (by definition infrequent) within an already small number 
of presumed hybrids. 
In contrast, the European Herring Gull hypothesis stands on a 
completely different logical basis. First, it is based on comparing the 
detailed appearance of the focal bird to large series of birds of known 
identity in the northern and eastern breeding populations of L. a. argentatus. 
Second, although we do not know how often European Herring Gulls occur in 
eastern North America, the small number of proven cases is not tiny, and surely 
the actual rate of occurrence greatly exceeds this number. Adult L. a. 
argenteus would almost always be overlooked as smithsonianus—as would adult 
argentatus with paler mantles and/or pink legs; darker adults with yellowish 
legs would be overlooked as hybrids; and all immatures would be overlooked as 
Lesser Black-backed Gulls.
The thing that is unusual about Larus is not its supposed promiscuity, 
but rather its strong reproductive isolating mechanisms, which allow groups of 
local populations to show remarkable phenotypic cohesion, even when they are 
very recently isolated and not yet sorted out genetically. In such a system, 
where the animals are very closely related, hybrids will be viable and 
intermediate in appearance. Thousands of Lesser Black-backed Gulls are right 
now migrating north past hundreds of thousands of already-paired-up Herring 
Gulls and Great Black backed Gulls. None will drop in and pair with a HERG or 
GBBG. Maybe one in a million. No not even that. 


From: Shaibal Mitra
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2022 12:36 PM
To: birdw...@listserv.ksu.edu; NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu)
Subject: RE: A Long Island, New York Larus with Yellow Legs

Hi all,

We studied the yellow-legged Larus at Old Field Point again yesterday, 27 Feb 
2022. For convenience, here are links to some checklists with useful photos and 
descriptions of the bird:

https://ebird.org/atlasny/checklist/S103596988
https://ebird.org/atlasny/checklist/S103599196
https://ebird.org/checklist/S103599677
https://ebird.org/atlasny/checklist/S103711048
https://ebird.org/checklist/S103758350
https://ebird.org/checklist/S103798052
https://ebird.org/atlasny/checklist/S103770855
https://ebird.org/checklist/S103820434
https://ebird.org/checklist/S103880419

I’m increasingly convinced that this gull is a European L. a. argentatus. There 
are many serious obstacles to the alternative interpretations.

The extent of white on P10 and P9, the restricted amount of black on PP6-8, the 
absence of black on P5, and the large size of the apical spots on all these 
feathers strongly counter-indicate Lesser Black-backed Gull, its potential 
hybrids with various Herring-type taxa, Yellow-legged Gull, Caspian Gull, and 
also most “Herring Gulls” (e.g., western/interior North American L. a. 
smithsonianus and European L. a. argenteus). These features of the wingtip are 
most consistent with northeastern North American smithsonianus (which is 
locally abundant) and vagrant argentatus (not yet documented in New York, but 
with records from Newfoundland). Published resources and series of photographs 
from known sites and dates indicate that the wingtip pattern wherein these two 
taxa approach each other most closely is very similar to that of the Old Field 
Point bird. There are several very subtle distinctions in primary pattern 
between the two taxa, and the assessment of these in the Old Field Point bird 
seems to me to be the primary remaining task (see below).

But even if this bird’s wingtip pattern is equivocal, it must be noted that it 
shows numerous other characters that closely match birds from the northern 
breeding areas of L. a. argentatus, and that specifically point away from L. a. 
smithsonianus:

1.  Mantle tone. The

[nysbirds-l] The 27th Block Island Presidents Day Count

[Shaibal Mitra]

Beginning in February 1996, a team of field ornithologists has been studying 
winter bird populations on Block Island, Rhode Island, by bracketing the 
traditional Christmas Bird Count (CBC) with similar counts around 10 November 
(Veterans Day Count, VDC) and 20 February (Presidents Day Count, PDC). Block 
Island was chosen because of its isolation from the nearest neighboring 
landmasses (the RI mainland and Long Island) and because it lacks (or nearly 
lacks) resident populations of many landbirds that are common year-round in 
these neighboring areas. Thus, the variable occurrence of such species on Block 
Island is easily interpretable as migration or dispersal, even in species for 
which such behavior is difficult to measure, or even discern, on the mainland 
(Downy and Hairy Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, etc.). The target date of 
the November count was chosen to fall later than the bulk of stereotyped 
long-distance migration by most nocturnal-migrant landbirds and many diurnal 
migrants, too. Similarly, the target date of the February count was chosen as 
deep into the winter as possible but still prior to the advent of stereotyped 
northbound migration in most species of landbirds. 
The primary original goal was to evaluate the over-winter survival or 
persistence of many “half-hardy” landbird species that, although near or beyond 
the normal limits of their winter ranges in southern New England, are regularly 
observed there on the mid-late December CBCs. Another question was whether the 
diminution of such species between December and February could be attributable, 
at least in part, for some species in some years, to over-water dispersal, in 
addition to mortality. Within a few years we recognized that all of the 
half-hardies that are most numerous on the CBC typically persist into mid-late 
February, and that their reduction in abundance is often no greater than among 
the most abundant landbird species wintering in the same habitats. We also 
noted a strong tendency for many species, but especially the half-hardies, to 
increase in abundance between November and December, proving a general capacity 
of such birds to undertake major movements long after their periods of “normal” 
migration. This latter finding suggests that such movements are at least 
possible later in the winter and might in fact contribute, along with 
mortality, to the reduced abundance observed in February. Related to both of 
these goals was the important practical question of whether the timing of the 
traditional CBC is possibly too early in the winter to provide a reliable 
measure of winter abundance in many species. Our conclusion (at least in the 
early years of this now multi-decade project!) was a validation of the CBC for 
this site: abundance on the CBC accurately predicted abundance on the PDC, 
whereas abundance on the VDC varied wildly and did not predict abundance on the 
CBC. Finally, the extra data and context provided by the supplementary counts 
were intended to assist with studying long-term trends (for instance, related 
to climate change); as hinted above, insights have been gained on this question 
as well.

This year’s Presidents Day Count was conducted on 21 Feb 2022 by 17 observers 
in ten parties—significantly better coverage than usual (average seven 
observers in four parties). Note, however, that the 39.8 party-miles on foot 
exceeded the average of 27 to a lesser extent than implied by the other 
metrics, because extra effort is devoted to legwork in years with fewer 
participants. An unprecedented total of 95 species was recorded, with variety 
well distributed across seabirds, freshwater species, and landbirds. 
All but one of the notable misses involved species that are frequently 
missed on the PDC: Northern Gannet (seventh miss), American Coot (eleventh 
miss), and Bonaparte’s Gull (eleventh miss). Ruddy Duck, Pied-billed Grebe, 
Double-crested Cormorant, American Bittern, Great Blue Heron, and Belted 
Kingfisher resemble Coot in their tendency to vanish after hard freezes, so it 
was notable that all except for the grebe and kingfisher were tallied this 
year—all singles, except for three Great Blue Herons. Virginia Rail is somewhat 
less sensitive than the preceding, but this year’s total of six was remarkable 
for the date. Freshwater ducks that can tolerate short periods of freezing were 
conspicuous: Gadwall, Ring-necked Duck, and Hooded Merganser continued their 
trends toward increased abundance, two rare species were found (Blue-winged 
Teal and Redhead, both fourth occurrences), and various others were present in 
large numbers, even though frequently missed altogether (18 Snow Goose, 36 
American Wigeon, and 13 Green-winged Teal).
Had I been told ahead of time we would see four species of alcids, I 
could not have imagined we’d miss Common Murre, which has been recorded on all 
but two of the previous 17 PDCs. Razorbills were numerous, four Bl

RE:[nysbirds-l] A Long Island, New York Larus with Yellow Legs

[Shaibal Mitra]

 the color of the orbital ring and gape.
6.  The shape of the large, broken mirror on P9 is distinctive—what does it 
mean? (Example of a similar wingtip and details of p9 from Belgium 1 Mar: 
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/212753731)
7.  Do the lengths or shapes of the pale tongues in PP7-8 favor either 
taxon?
8.  The black band on P6 shows a very slight W shape. This is ascribed to 
smithsonianus but is readily found in photos of European Herring Gulls, at 
least of ssp. argenteus:

http://www.gull-research.org/hg/hg5cy/adfeb66.html

For the sake of thoroughness, these points should be resolved and assessed with 
regard to northeastern smithsonianus vs. northern argentatus. But it seems to 
me that characters 5-8 could only weakly support smithsonianus or 
counter-indicate argentatus, whereas characters 1-3 pose very serious obstacles 
for smithsonianus and match northern argentatus to a surprisingly detailed 
degree.

Finally, in going back through my photos of variant Herring and Great 
Black-backed Gulls with yellow legs, I found another bird (from 3 May 2014) 
that is suggestive of argentatus:

https://flic.kr/p/RV27qh

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore


From: Shaibal Mitra
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2022 8:47 AM
To: birdw...@listserv.ksu.edu; NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu)
Subject: A Long Island, New York Larus with Yellow Legs

Dear ID Frontiers NYSBirds,

I would appreciate feedback regarding an adult yellow-legged Larus found 22 Feb 
at Old Field Point, on the north shore of central Long Island, New York.

Broadly speaking, it is a Herring Gull type, but there are reasons to doubt 
each of the usual (and less usual) interpretations of Herring-like gulls with 
yellow legs in this region at this time of year.

Most often, such birds prove to be otherwise typical smithsonianus Herring 
Herring Gulls, which regularly show some degree of yellow color in the legs and 
feet in late winter and early spring (as do small numbers of local Great 
Black-backed Gulls). Another frequent interpretation is Herring Gull x Lesser 
Black-backed Gull hybrid, which the original finder, Patrice Domeischel, 
considered in the present case because of the bird's slightly darker than 
smithsonianus mantle. A third possibility, always present in the minds of New 
York gull aficionados, is Yellow-legged Gull, which was considered by Patrice, 
and also by Peter Osswald, who independently found the bird on 23 Feb.

Patricia Lindsay and I studied the bird yesterday afternoon (23 Feb), and I 
have reservations about all three of these hypotheses, which are explained in 
my eBird report (link below). Briefly, Yellow-legged Gull is counter-indicated 
by this bird's heavier than expected head and nape streaking; it's notably 
large (larger than typical smithsonianus) apical spots on the primaries; and 
other details of the wingtip pattern (more white, less black than typical for 
smithsonianus, let along Yellow-legged Gull). The latter two points regarding 
the primaries also point away from Lesser Black-backed Gull ancestry. Finally, 
American Herring Gull is problematic by virtue of the subtly (but clearly) 
darker than typical mantle tone; the completely clear yellow tones of the the 
legs and feet; and details of the wingtip pattern. I could not see the orbital 
ring color. Photos by Patrice and Barbara Lagois seem to show it is red, but 
are not decisive on this point, in my opinion.

I wonder if this bird might represent a yellow-legged example of northern 
European L. a. argentatus, which I do not know well in life, but which is 
described as having a slightly darker mantle tone than smithsonianus, a wingtip 
pattern very similar to the present bird, and a relatively high incidence of 
yellow leg color.

My preliminary analysis (with photos by Barbara Lagois) and two of Patrice's 
checklists, also with excellent photos can be found here:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S103599677
https://ebird.org/atlasny/checklist/S103599196
https://ebird.org/atlasny/checklist/S103596988

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore, New York

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Please submit your observations to eBird:
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[nysbirds-l] A Long Island, New York Larus with Yellow Legs

[Shaibal Mitra]

Dear ID Frontiers NYSBirds,

I would appreciate feedback regarding an adult yellow-legged Larus found 22 Feb 
at Old Field Point, on the north shore of central Long Island, New York.

Broadly speaking, it is a Herring Gull type, but there are reasons to doubt 
each of the usual (and less usual) interpretations of Herring-like gulls with 
yellow legs in this region at this time of year.

Most often, such birds prove to be otherwise typical smithsonianus Herring 
Herring Gulls, which regularly show some degree of yellow color in the legs and 
feet in late winter and early spring (as do small numbers of local Great 
Black-backed Gulls). Another frequent interpretation is Herring Gull x Lesser 
Black-backed Gull hybrid, which the original finder, Patrice Domeischel, 
considered in the present case because of the bird's slightly darker than 
smithsonianus mantle. A third possibility, always present in the minds of New 
York gull aficionados, is Yellow-legged Gull, which was considered by Patrice, 
and also by Peter Osswald, who independently found the bird on 23 Feb. 

Patricia Lindsay and I studied the bird yesterday afternoon (23 Feb), and I 
have reservations about all three of these hypotheses, which are explained in 
my eBird report (link below). Briefly, Yellow-legged Gull is counter-indicated 
by this bird's heavier than expected head and nape streaking; it's notably 
large (larger than typical smithsonianus) apical spots on the primaries; and 
other details of the wingtip pattern (more white, less black than typical for 
smithsonianus, let along Yellow-legged Gull). The latter two points regarding 
the primaries also point away from Lesser Black-backed Gull ancestry. Finally, 
American Herring Gull is problematic by virtue of the subtly (but clearly) 
darker than typical mantle tone; the completely clear yellow tones of the the 
legs and feet; and details of the wingtip pattern. I could not see the orbital 
ring color. Photos by Patrice and Barbara Lagois seem to show it is red, but 
are not decisive on this point, in my opinion.

I wonder if this bird might represent a yellow-legged example of northern 
European L. a. argentatus, which I do not know well in life, but which is 
described as having a slightly darker mantle tone than smithsonianus, a wingtip 
pattern very similar to the present bird, and a relatively high incidence of 
yellow leg color.

My preliminary analysis (with photos by Barbara Lagois) and two of Patrice's 
checklists, also with excellent photos can be found here:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S103599677
https://ebird.org/atlasny/checklist/S103599196
https://ebird.org/atlasny/checklist/S103596988

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore, New York
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Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/

--

RE: [nysbirds-l] Are there more than one Golden Eagle overwintering at Storm King Mountain, Orange County?

[Shaibal Mitra]

Dear Ajit and all,

I am among the many observers who recorded a Golden Eagle at Storm King this 
month with extreme negligence regarding critical detail. I was in the throes of 
an intense bout of twitching, riding the thrill of impending glory on the Hot 
100, and lazy with my record-keeping! But the bird was so cooperative and 
arresting, that I actually lapsed back into real birding mode and studied it 
quite carefully, despite my intentions to "take no chances with the LASP!" Pat 
and I discussed the eagle in reasonable detail, and I repeated most of the 
points in a phone call with Tom Burke, who had been there a day or two earlier. 
I've amended my eBird report with the following:

"Huge raptor, mostly blackish, but with extensive, messy paler markings across 
upperwing coverts; extensively bright golden nape; small and irregular pale 
blotch on breast; and black-tipped tail with paler base.* Feet deep yellow. The 
overall proportions were quite different from the superficially similar 
immature plumages of BAEA, most notably in the more normal-looking head and 
bill (not grotequely large as in Haliaeetus spp.) and overall more "normal" or 
"Buteo-like" manners during a fortuitous fly-around between periods perching at 
its traditional spot, first facing away and to the right, and afterwards 
perching facing us. Furthermore, it lacked white in the axillaries, underwing 
coverts, and belly, one or more of which would be present in any BAEA lacking 
white head and tail.

*The age of this bird, and its individual identity relative to other reports of 
GOEA from this area this season, are somewhat uncertain. The extensively pale 
upperwing coverts exclude a juvenile, and the messiness of these tracts 
suggests an adult to me (opportunity for multiple feather generations to be 
present). Furthermore, we did not see any white at the wrists, as is usually 
obvious in a juv GOEA. On the perched bird, I could see that the base of the 
tail was paler than the terminus several times, most strikingly when it raised 
its tail to defecate before its fly-around. At that point, it looked pretty 
much whitish at the base with a black terminal band. On the other hand, when it 
was flying around, the base of the tail looked only vaguely paler than the 
black terminus. Lacking critical experience with this species, I can't choose 
confidently between an older immature vs. an adult. If it is possible for the 
grayer base of an adult GOEA's tail to appear variably--and sometimes 
obviously--pale, depending on lighting and angle, I would lean toward an adult, 
based on other features and a consistent pattern of behavior over the years 
suggestive of a returning individual."

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-126262833-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-126262833-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Ajit I. Antony 
[aiant...@earthlink.net]
Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2022 6:35 PM
To: NYSbirds-L@cornell.edu
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Are there more than one Golden Eagle overwintering at 
Storm King Mountain, Orange County?

Sent from Mail for Windows
I know that many birders from out of Orange County, NY come to see the Storm  
King Mountain Golden Eagle, so hence this essay on this forum.

Thanks to all the birders entering their data in eBird we have good 
documentation of the Golden Eagle on Storm King for yet another year. A very 
few birders have the skills and equipment to photograph the species well, and 
many thanks to them.

I had seen a recent report on the Orange County RBA of a Golden Eagle sighting 
by Mearns Club member Barbara Thomascall at Iona Island 
https://ebird.org/atlasny/checklist/S100714805 whose description “Large eagle 
with golden nape, two brown bands along back of wings, some pale on the flight 
feathers of the underside of the wing” seemed to me to suggest a subadult GE. 
All the photographs I’ve seen this year of the Storm King GE suggested a 
“more-than-one-year-old” GE, so I wondered whether there were more than one GE 
overwintering in the area.

I looked at all the local eBird sightings for GE under Species Maps 
https://tinyurl.com/2p8wcmh3  I added in “Current Year” for Date Range and 
“Orange County” for Location.


A singular focus on only 1 feature of GE by all reporters

The feature described by almost everyone seems to be the golden nape to the 
exclusion of any other features of the species. At the I-84 Overlook Hawk Watch 
we have seen a number of subadult BE which “certainly seemed” initially to have 
convincing golden hackles/nape and a dihedral (BE at this location often have 
dihedrals because of the ridges) when they were really far away suggesting GE, 
but when they flew closer we realized they were Bald Eagle when we saw the 
diagnostic white axillaries or the oblique white line along the underwing.
Remember, a ‘juvenile’ eagle is one in its 1st year of life. An ‘immature’ is 
all years ot

[nysbirds-l] Southern Nassau County CBC, 2 January 2022--Preliminary Results

[Shaibal Mitra]

The Southern Nassau County CBC was conducted on Sunday, 2 Jan 2022. The weather 
preceding the count was highly unusual; in 40 years participating in CBCs in 
the Northeast, I cannot recall a November-December period so completely lacking 
in freezing conditions. The morning of the count was warm (min temp 48 F), 
calm, and very foggy, greatly hindering visibility. The fog cleared during the 
late morning, however, and temperatures rose to 60 F before the post-frontal 
northwesterly winds whipped up late in the day. 

The early morning conditions might be blamed for bad misses such as Razorbill 
and Bonaparte’s Gull, but the lack of wind also surely contributed to improved 
detection of many species, including many of the unusually large list of 
10-year maxima (discussed below), and a very unusual set of suite of 
usually-scarce species that were detected in multiples: 4 Wood Duck, 2 Clapper 
Rail, 7 American Woodcock, 2 American Bittern, 3 yellow-crowned Night-Heron, 5 
Eastern Screech-Owl, 5 Marsh Wren, 3 Chipping Sparrow, 5 Eastern Meadowlark, 3 
Palm Warbler, 5 Orange-crowned Warbler, and 2 Pine Warbler. The warm late fall 
and early winter weather undoubtedly influenced these positive records also, 
just as it surely contributed to numerous negative outcomes. Misses such as 
Common Merganser, Red-necked Grebe, and Lapland Longspur come to mind, as do 
some of the 10-year minima and other low counts, which tended to be 
concentrated among the waterfowl:

Ten-year Minima
Brant (16,025), Surf Scoter (12), American Coot (16), Ring-billed Gull (1884), 
Herring Gull (2205), Red-throated Loon (44), Common Loon (13—vs. the previous 
min of 94 and the ten-year average of 183!), Northern Harrier (11), Red-tailed 
Hawk (18), American Crow (70), House Sparrow (983), Snow Bunting (10), and 
Field Sparrow (2).

Other low counts:
American Wigeon (64), Northern Pintail (27), Redhead (1), Greater Scaup (85), 
Common Eider (3), White-winged Scoter (8), Black Scoter (91), Long-tailed Duck 
(111), Bufflehead (90—vs. ten-year average 315), Ruddy Duck (102), Horned Grebe 
(1), Red Knot (2), Great Cormorant (1), White-breasted Nuthatch (14), and 
American Goldfinch (85). 

Some of these species have been diminishing for some time (notably Redhead, 
Horned Grebe, and Great Cormorant), whereas others wouldn’t obviously be 
responding to the warm lead-up. Nevertheless, a general paucity of waterfowl 
and other aquatic birds was noticed on most or all of the prior CBCs on Long 
Island.

(Digressing for a moment to settle our debts and failures, the following were 
reported in the circle during the count week but not on count day: Blue-winged 
Teal, Osprey, Northern Shrike, Yellow-breasted Chat, Red Crossbill, and 
Dickcissel.)

Very curiously, and in contrast to the rather long lists of low numbers 
detailed above, a surprisingly large number of species bested their ten-year 
maxima:

Mourning Dove (988), Greater yellowlegs (70), Lesser Black-backed Gull (7), 
Great Egret (25), Black-crowned Night-Heron (142), Merlin (15), Monk Parakeet 
(363), Blue Jay (230), Golden-crowned Kinglet (57), Ruby-crowned Kinglet (24), 
Brown Creeper (19), Carolina Wren (171), Gray Catbird (49—vs. ten-year max 24), 
Hermit thrush (19), American Robin (919), Fox Sparrow (46), White-throated 
Sparrow (1285—vs. ten-year max 762). As noted above, the combination of an 
ice-free lead-up and a windless morning undoubtedly contributed to many of 
these results. The dramatic upsurge of White-throated Sparrow throughout Long 
Island and southern England during the 122nd CBC period deserves emphasis. I 
have never regarded this as a particularly volatile species (prone to dramatic 
shifts in abundance from year to year), and its general trend on the half dozen 
regional CBCs I do has been downward for more than a decade. This is certainly 
a species to pay attention to throughout the rest of the winter, particularly 
via focused efforts such as the Northport Winter Count and the Block Island 
Presidents Day Count.

And finally, as is the custom on this count, there were numerous unusual 
species, including Common Gallinule, Semipalmated Plover, Piping Plover, 
Western Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, Turkey Vulture, Saltmarsh Sparrow 
(two, in different territories), and Baltimore Oriole (again two, in different 
territories). All of these have one or two precedents over the past ten years, 
and I will add a Nashville Warbler here, even though it has been recorded in 
four out of the past ten years. The three most unusual species were Nelson’s 
Sparrow (fourth time recorded, and the first since 3 Jan 2009), Lincoln’s 
Sparrow (third ever and first since 2 Jan 2000), and Cape May Warbler (second 
ever and first since 30 Dec 1956). This year’s wild combination of failures and 
successes combined to produce a remarkable preliminary total of 139 species, 
well above our ten-year average of 133.

Pat and I thank the New York State Parks, Town of Hempstead, and 

RE:[nysbirds-l] LI Storm Birding: 310 Lesser Black-backed Gulls--Addendum

[Shaibal Mitra]

I meant to add:

Today, for instance, there were just 5 LBBGs at Captree and 5 at Heckscher (per 
Pat).

From: Shaibal Mitra
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2021 2:18 PM
To: NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu)
Subject: LI Storm Birding: 310 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

This morning's intense rain and strong easterly winds grounded large numbers of 
migrating Lesser Black-backed Gulls. At Robert Moses SP in southwestern Suffolk 
County, Doug Futuyma, Patricia Lindsay, and I counted multiple flocks 
containing 310 individuals, outnumbering all other gulls combined (Great 
Black-backed was second most numerous, whereas Laughing and Ring-billed Gulls 
were in single-digits, so evidently resting some other place).

I was able to assess the age composition for most of the flocks: 14 juveniles, 
62 second calendar-year, and 150 older immatures and adults (these can be hard 
to tell apart at this date, without close study, whereas the SY birds are still 
fairly uniform in appearance). Even just a few years ago, the (then smaller) 
largest October counts tended to have few SYs, so the timing of movements of 
the age cohorts is changing, as well as their overall abundance.

Another interesting pattern is that habitat specificity seems to be tightening 
up, even as abundance continues to increase rapidly. This is in marked contrast 
to several other species that have have increased in overall abundance on Long 
Island during the same period: Common Eider, Razorbill, and Northern Gannet 
have also increased greatly over the past 30 years, but each of these has 
broadened its ecological profile at the same time, occurring in increasingly 
diverse areas and habitats. The predilection of Lesser Black-backed Gull for 
the outer coast is as strong, or stronger, now than when the species was rare 
or uncommon overall. In fact, 15 years ago, sites like Captree and Heckscher, 
that are just slightly recessed from the ocean, were not obviously worse for 
LBBGs than the ocean beaches. Now, with overall numbers two orders of magnitude 
higher, absolute occurrence at these sites is barely greater than it was then.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

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[nysbirds-l] LI Storm Birding: 310 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

[Shaibal Mitra]

This morning's intense rain and strong easterly winds grounded large numbers of 
migrating Lesser Black-backed Gulls. At Robert Moses SP in southwestern Suffolk 
County, Doug Futuyma, Patricia Lindsay, and I counted multiple flocks 
containing 310 individuals, outnumbering all other gulls combined (Great 
Black-backed was second most numerous, whereas Laughing and Ring-billed Gulls 
were in single-digits, so evidently resting some other place).

I was able to assess the age composition for most of the flocks: 14 juveniles, 
62 second calendar-year, and 150 older immatures and adults (these can be hard 
to tell apart at this date, without close study, whereas the SY birds are still 
fairly uniform in appearance). Even just a few years ago, the (then smaller) 
largest October counts tended to have few SYs, so the timing of movements of 
the age cohorts is changing, as well as their overall abundance.

Another interesting pattern is that habitat specificity seems to be tightening 
up, even as abundance continues to increase rapidly. This is in marked contrast 
to several other species that have have increased in overall abundance on Long 
Island during the same period: Common Eider, Razorbill, and Northern Gannet 
have also increased greatly over the past 30 years, but each of these has 
broadened its ecological profile at the same time, occurring in increasingly 
diverse areas and habitats. The predilection of Lesser Black-backed Gull for 
the outer coast is as strong, or stronger, now than when the species was rare 
or uncommon overall. In fact, 15 years ago, sites like Captree and Heckscher, 
that are just slightly recessed from the ocean, were not obviously worse for 
LBBGs than the ocean beaches. Now, with overall numbers two orders of magnitude 
higher, absolute occurrence at these sites is barely greater than it was then.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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[nysbirds-l] NYS Young Birders Club--North Atlantic Right Whale++

[Shaibal Mitra]

The New York State Young Birders Club visited Nickerson Beach this morning, 
with Mary Normandia, Pat Lindsay, and me there to help out. This was 13 years 
after the group's very first field trip, to Jamaica Bay:

http://nysyoungbirders.org/articles/tripreports/JamaicaBay2008_0816.htm

This year's trip was also scheduled for Jamaica Bay, but we changed venue 
because recent rains had rendered the East Pond difficult for birding. Our 
backup choice of Nickerson Beach was richly reward by a great variety of birds; 
but the astonishing highlight was a North Atlantic Right Whale, swimming west 
to east offshore, slapping its pectoral fin and revealing one of its flukes, 
repeatedly, around 9:00.

The Young Birders are highly skilled with their cameras and acquired excellent 
documentation (while I ogled the creature in disbelief, noting its ginkgo-leaf 
pectoral fins, fin-less dorsum, and bizarre callosities). Nickerson Beach 
monitors Brien and Paul alerted the marine mammal community, and theses experts 
would not have believed us were it not for the photos.

These are courtesy of young birder Rio:

https://flic.kr/p/2mk8vZn

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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[nysbirds-l] Reflections on Tropical Storm Henri

[Shaibal Mitra]

The information/communications environment we now inhabit distorts our 
expectations. At least this is how it seems to some of us who began birding 
storms prior to the advent of the internet and mobile phones. Perhaps it could 
be argued that our expectations have simply been altered, not necessarily for 
the worse. It was pointed out to me several times, explicitly and implicitly, 
during the excited lead-up to Tropical Storm Henri, that I am now an old-timer. 
From that perspective, I think I can state accurately that my more humble 
expectations, which come naturally to me after decades of personal failures of 
various sorts while searching for birds, serve me well—and possibly better than 
the grander expectations that arise so easily now, based on the non-stop news 
cycle of other people’s successes, culled from a vast body of collective effort 
that constantly and noisily commands our attention.

And yet I definitely expected that this storm would produce at least a few 
Band-rumped Storm-Petrels, Black-capped Petrels, and White-tailed Tropicbirds, 
somewhere on Long Island or New England, if not for me personally. And I 
intended to do my best to put myself where I might find them. I also expected 
that the storm would displace some of the regular seabirds that inhabit our 
shelf waters at this time of year, and that it would force down difficult to 
see species that normally over-fly the coast at this season. Of these three 
modalities, my experience from 40-plus years of birding has been that the 
tropical/Gulf Stream results are by far the most variable from storm to storm. 
Indeed, each storm’s yield of such birds seems wildly uncertain and almost 
always defies predictions, for better or worse, despite our ever-increasing 
sophistication in terms of precedent and meteorology. The second mode, relating 
to our common seabirds, impresses me as being the most predictable. When a 
storm approaches our coast from the south, one will see Sterna and Laughing 
Gulls streaming eastward during the approach, and one will usually see some 
shearwaters and jaegers during the storm, if one is able to view the ocean. The 
third mode, southbound migrants whose ordinarily invisible overhead flights are 
obstructed and forced downward, almost always occurs in some fashion, but with 
much variation in terms of scale and species composition. Lesser Yellowlegs and 
Black Tern are the bread and butter of this cohort, Sabine’s Gull and 
Long-tailed Jaeger the caviar.

Viewed this way, Henri’s avian impacts look less freakishly pathetic than they 
seemed at first. The greatest surprises, requiring some exploration, are (1) 
the near (or complete?) absence of tropical/Gulf Stream birds; and (2) the 
abundance and richness of the downed migrants.

My intention from the beginning was to try to get east of the eye at landfall 
on Sunday and to be at an appropriate promontory to observe displaced birds 
flying back to the ocean on Monday morning. Initially it seemed that Montauk 
Point could serve both purposes, provided that one could get there, hide the 
jeep from the gendarmerie, and survive overnight. But the 11:00 p.m. tracking 
update obviated that. Patricia Lindsay and I would have to drive through the 
top of the storm to Rhode Island on Sunday morning and see what we could 
accomplish in my childhood haunts.

It quickly became clear that this was not a physically large storm. It was calm 
with just light rain in Bay Shore at 7:00 a.m.; the rain was intense in 
Bridgeport, but just a little further east in New Haven, it was utterly calm 
with light rain at 9:07. We first noticed the wind picking up when we crossed 
the high, exposed bridge over the Connecticut River, and our pulses quickened 
when we re-entered our home turf in New London. There, on the Thames River 
bridge at 9:49, both wind and rain were intense. Dropping down to the RI coast 
along Rte. 1, I felt that perfect sense of excitement that I experience from 
being in a hurricane, irrespective of the birding angle. I couldn’t resist 
exploring some storm-roost spots in the Matunuck area, but this was in 
retrospect an error that was potentially quite costly. My plan was a pee-stop 
at Trustom Pond, a quick trip down to Mud Pond, inspection of Cards Pond and 
the fields to the east, then escape back to Rte. 1 via Matunuck Beach Road. But 
that road was blocked by fallen trees, as was Moonstone Beach Road when we 
tried to return that way, but Green Hill Beach Road was still open, so we 
escaped.

>From there, everything went perfectly in terms of timing, access, etc. We were 
>able to bird the Point Judith Peninsula in relative comfort as the poorly 
>formed eye made land and we found loads of birds at all the regular 
>storm-roosts. The only problem was that all of the birds we saw were, with 
>only one possible exception, species expected as to time and place. With 
>effort we saw Manx, Great, and Cory’s Shearwaters, a Parasitic Jaeger, two 
>Black T

[nysbirds-l] Captree June Count, 12 June 2021

[Shaibal Mitra]

The Captree June Count was conducted for the seventh consecutive year on 
Saturday 12 June 2021. A record total of 37 observers divided into 20 parties 
to cover the nine traditional territories of the Captree Christmas Bird Count 
circle, in southwestern Suffolk County, Long Island. This fine-grained effort, 
in combination with favorable weather, yielded a total of 138 species—eight 
more than the previous best totals, in 2017 and 2019. Breeding evidence was 
obtained for 106 species, 57 of which were confirmed, with 14 more scored as 
probable.

Easterly winds and good visibility allowed for a productive seawatch in which, 
for the first time in these seven years, all seven of the regularly occurring 
seabird species were recorded on the CJC: 3 Parasitic Jaegers, 15 Wilson’s 
Storm-Petrels, 16 Cory’s Shearwaters, 17 Sooty Shearwaters, single Great and 
Manx Shearwaters, and 62 Northern Gannets; eleven Roseate Terns and two Arctic 
Terns were also highlights at Fire Island.

Indeed, the highlights were many. The best waterfowl records were Green-winged 
Teal at Oak Beach and a Hooded Merganser and family of Wood Ducks at 
Connetquot. The only Whip-poor-wills recorded were also at Connetquot. 
Remarkable for June were 16 species of shorebirds, headlined by a Red Knot at 
Fire Island, White-rumped Sandpipers at Gardiner County Park and Oakdale, and a 
Stilt Sandpiper at Oak Beach. The Heckscher team found an American Woodcock, 
adding this difficult to detect species to the cumulative list at last. For the 
first time in seven years, we managed to log both Little Blue and Tricolored 
Herons, scarce and elusive residents of the Captree marshes, and another 
Tricolor was found in the Oakdale-West Sayville area. Great Horned Owl is not 
numerous in this circle, so one at Belmont was an excellent pick up, and the 
observers covering the East Islip area must be commended for their thoroughness 
in tallying up no fewer than eight Eastern Screech-Owls by night, then two 
locally scarce Turkey Vultures by day. 

Among passerines, a Bank Swallow at Belmont was new to the count and likely a 
late migrant, whereas the pair of Yellow-throated Warblers at Bayard Cutting 
Arboretum were confirmed feeding young—a brand-new Brown-headed Cowbird. 
Forest-breeding Neotropical migrants are not doing well in this circle, but 
Connetquot still supports at least eight Veeries and two Wood Thrushes were 
recorded in the Oakdale-West Sayville area. The former site was also host to 
the only two Black-and-white Warblers, whereas the latter yielded a territorial 
Hooded Warbler—a species barely suspected of ever breeding on the south shore 
of western and central Long Island. 

Common Ravens (9!) fledged young prior to the count, and Wild Turkey made an 
emphatic entry onto the list with 12 birds in three of the easternmost 
territories. A numerical pattern that can’t be ignored involves the gulls on 
the outer beach. The most numerous species was Great Black-backed Gull at 
1,056—more than five times the previous max. A total of 1,015 Laughing Gulls 
was partly a reflection of the relatively new colony in Great South Bay, but 
mostly comprised first-summer birds migrating west to east over the ocean. 
Lesser Black-backed Gull retrenched to 41 from last year’s total of 66, but 
still managed to outnumber Herring Gull in a couple of outer beach flocks. 

Our worst misses were Surf Scoter (always a roll of the dice at this season), 
Belted Kingfisher (not really expected as a breeder in this circle), but also 
three Neotropicals: Yellow-billed and Black-billed Cuckoos, and, most 
remarkably and distressingly, Scarlet Tanager.

The full data for this year’s count, including breeding codes and summaries of 
frequency and maximum counts, are available on request.

We thank all of our participants and convey our deep gratitude to Bob and 
Michelle Grover for hosting an in-person compilation. It was such a pleasure 
for us all to be together again, recounting the day and so many past days we’ve 
shared.

Patricia Lindsay & Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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[nysbirds-l] First-summer Arctic Tern at Nickerson Beach, Nassau County

[Shaibal Mitra]

A first-summer (= almost one year-old) Arctic Tern was observed this morning at 
Nickerson Beach, Nassau County. It was resting with Common Terns in a small 
beach-front loafing flock which was soon disturbed by passers-by, after which 
the Arctic Tern was not seen again.

As is characteristic of the occurrence of this species on Long Island, this 
morning's follow-up effort, after yesterday's adult Arctic Tern at this site, 
failed to produce that bird but instead yielded a recognizably different 
individual. These birds seem to drop in for short visits to favorable loafing 
sites, for periods ranging from a few minutes to a few hours, and only rarely 
does a particular bird persist for multiple days.

There are several places at Nickerson that are currently attracting 
loafing/visiting terns not directly associated with the nearby breeding colony, 
including a large flock next to the fenced-off freshwater pool next to the 
western colony--ideal for our purposes because it is less vulnerable to 
disturbance than are the beach-front flocks.

Photos of this morning's bird can be seen here:

https://flic.kr/p/2m34yJq

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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Re: [nysbirds-l] dark eyed white-eyed vireo in late May?

[Shaibal Mitra]

Anything is possible with pigementation characters, but White-eyed Vireo would 
be a vagrant in Arizona. The most obvious possibility is that it was a Bell's 
Vireo.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-125667917-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-125667917-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Andrew Block 
[ablock22...@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2021 9:17 AM
To: NYS Birds
Cc: nysbird...@cornell.edu
Subject: [nysbirds-l] dark eyed white-eyed vireo in late May?

Has anyone ever had a juvenile white-eyed vireo in late May?  I had a bird in 
AZ that looked just like a white-eyed vireo but it's eye was dark.  I know the 
juveniles have dark eyes, but I've always been puzzled that it was dark at that 
time of year.  I would think they haven't even fledged at that time.  I thought 
of maybe a Mexican species but there are none that look like the white-eyed and 
have a dark eye.  Just wondering.

Andrew

Andrew v. F. Block
Consulting Naturalist
20 Hancock Avenue, Apt. 3
Yonkers, Westchester Co., New York 10705-4780
www.flickr.com/photos/conuropsis/albums
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Re: [nysbirds-l] Global Big Day and Massive White-Winged Scoter Flight Broome Co. NY

[Shaibal Mitra]

Dear Dave and all,

This is great stuff and a reminder that it is long past time for us to connect 
the dots and write up a note about the overland spring migration of 
White-winged Scoters, Red-necked Grebes, and other seafowl in the Northeast.

Following Dave's note below, I've pasted several notes relating to these 
species' visible spring movements along the outer coast of Long Island, and 
especially along the more recessed coast of the mainland, from Westchester 
County and Connecticut to Rhode Island. To summarize very briefly, we often see 
White-winged Scoters migrating from east to west along these coasts during May, 
and the folks in the far western LI Sound have documented them heading overland 
in the evening. Presumably these birds usually make it at least to the Great 
Lakes, but Dave's observations suggest that sometimes they don't. On a related 
topic, but in the fall, observers on the ocean coast sometimes fortuitously 
detect scoters arriving from the north in the morning. Because the flocks are 
striking the coast on a perpendicular track, the observer must be lucky to be 
standing at a more or less random place along the shore. These arriving scoter 
flocks drop lower when they reach the ocean, and then turn either left (ene) or 
right (wsw), presumably toward wintering grounds off eastern LI/southern New 
England or further south along the coast, respectively.

The notes copied below, include specific instances of westward spring flights 
of White-winged Scoters and a link to an old paper showing that this phenomenon 
has been known for more than a century.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-125619177-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-125619177-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of David Nicosia 
[daven102...@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 8, 2021 7:50 PM
To: NY Birds; BroomeBirds
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Global Big Day and Massive White-Winged Scoter Flight 
Broome Co. NY

All,

Had about 7 hours to bird today so I made the most of it and began at one of 
our local hotspots - Whitney Point Dam. along Keibal Rd. Jim Hoteling, one of 
our fine local birders, made it there early and reported an amazing 250+ WW 
SCOTERS on the dam. I came up quickly and we found even more up the reservoir. 
We had a close estimate of 400 WW SCOTERS which crushed the Broome Co previous 
high count record of 27. I also looked around the Finger Lakes county's ebird 
reports and it looks like this could be a record for upstate NY in the counties 
away from Lake Ontario/Lake Erie and of course it pales in comparison to the 
staggering numbers that have been counted from Long Island.  This is the most 
of this species I have ever seen away from the coast by far. There were also 
other reports of high numbers of WW SCOTERS around the Finger Lakes too. I 
suspect last night's heavy rain coincided with a big migratory flight of this 
species and many of these birds were forced down. Amazingly we carefully 
checked all the scoters and only came up with 1 SURF SCOTER. We also had 4 
RED-NECKED GREBES which are rare in Broome Co but regular each year.

Keibal rd in Whitney Point is unique in that it has woodland and field habitat 
that comes right up to the lake.  There were quite a few warbler flocks mostly 
Yellow-rumped, but we also had several other species   List for Keibal Rd is 
here https://ebird.org/atlasny/checklist/S87440451

Upper Lisle County Park was quiet as we hit it midday and it was beginning to 
get windy with temperatures around 40F. Upper Lisle Co. Park list is here 
https://ebird.org/atlasny/checklist/S87472754

I totaled 103 species in Broome County which was decent. I wish I had more time.

I hope many of you had an awesome day too!

Good Birding to all!
Best,
Dave Nicosia


________
From: Shaibal Mitra
Sent: Saturday, May 18, 2019 11:54 PM
To: NYSbirds-L@cornell.edu
Subject: RE: westward spring migration of White-winged Scoters

Around 6:00 pm this evening, while watching an impressive gathering of 
shorebirds on the Cupsogue flats, Suffolk Co., I saw something I've thought 
about for many years but never seen before. Included below is a thread on the 
westward spring migration of several species of ocean-wintering waterfowl; we 
observers on the outer beach see this sort of thing quite often. But sharp 
observers such as Dick Ferren and Tom Burke, one or two geographic layers up in 
southwestern RI, CT, and Westchester Co., have sometimes seen these birds 
actually heading north overland, like Brant.

This evening at Cupsogue, I saw a distant flock over the ocean to the east that 
seemed too high to be cormorants. Putting the scope on them, I saw that most 
were White-winged Scoters, along with a contingent of dark-winged scoters. 
Tracking them, they turned north and crossed the barrier beach over the 
monstrous mansions in Westhampton Beach, at which point the non-White-wings 
p

[nysbirds-l] Burrowing Owl, Kings County

[Shaibal Mitra]

A Burrowing Owl was photographed in Brooklyn this morning, at the Lowe’s in 
Kings Plaza on Avenue U at Flatbush in Brooklyn. The photo shows the bird 
resting on a black metal fence alongside some shrink-wrapped containers.

The person who found it is not a birder but sent the photo to Tom O'Donnell, a 
birding friend who lives in western NYS. Knowing my name and email from NYSOA, 
Tom sent the photo and info to me, and I'm sharing it with the birding 
community.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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[nysbirds-l] Four-letter Codes for Birds

[Shaibal Mitra]

When Rich posted yesterday, I was anxiously awaiting any news at all from him 
and read it immediately on the basis of the sender's name, regardless of the 
subject line. I and many others appreciated his efforts to re-find the Violent 
Green Swallow in the cold and wind. That said, the "RWSW" in the subject line 
caught my eye. I haven't seen that code since I finally tore myself away from 
it in the late 80s or 90s, but my old childhood notebooks contain many such 
entries, prior to the standardization of four-letter codes and the splitting of 
the Rough-winged Swallow complex into several species, including our NRWS. I'm 
guessing that Rich's use of codes goes back at least that far, and that his 
typo dates him to the earliest years of this expedience.

I vividly remember my first exposure to the idea of four-letter codes for 
birds: an article in Bird Watcher's Digest around 1981. I thought it was a 
great idea and adopted it in my own notes immediately. My early notebooks need 
a little tlc to interpret: my "BWWA" meant Black-and-white Warbler, a 
super-familiar species that nested behind my house, rather than Blue-winged 
Warbler, which took me a couple of years to find in its much lower numbers and 
more localized breeding sites within biking distance of my house. When I 
finally found my first Blue-winged Warblers in the Great Swamp, I realized I 
had a problem. Ditto for my discovery of a colony of Bank Swallows at the 
Plains Road super fund site, which was accomplished only after a couple of 
notebooks were filled with "BASW," referring to the ubiquitous, chirpy, 
long-tailed one.

Anyway, I'd like to commend the use of four-letter codes, not just for 
note-taking, but for efficiently navigating eBird. Standard codes work in eBird 
for any search at the species level, and, in certain kinds of navigation, down 
to subspecies level, for those that have codes assigned (e.g. searching media 
for "YPWA" brings up photos and recordings of Yellow Palm Warbler). This last 
observation reminds me of a significant and largely under-appreciated virtue of 
four-letter codes. Fluency in them will teach you a lot about taxonomy and 
field-identifiability at the subspecies and superspecies levels. Subspecies 
that have been assigned codes are those that are distinctive enough that 
banders are expected to be able to distinguish and record them as such. So why 
not birders, too? In fact, many of the codes that were initially applied to 
distinctive subspecies, such as "ETTI" (vs. Black-crested Titmouse), have since 
been split. In other cases, it was enlightening to learn that I wasn't supposed 
to use "WIFL" when banding the locally common breeding Empid, because of 
difficulties in distinguishing it from "ALFL" in the hand, when these birds 
simply refuse to sing and were coded collectively as TRFL (Traill's 
Flycatcher). This challenged me to seek reliable visual features to distinguish 
them, which I believe I have been able to do, in large part.

If anybody has old issues of Bird Watcher's Digest (or superior hacking skills) 
and could share that forty year-old article with me, I'd appreciate it. The way 
I remember it, the proposal wasn't originally geared toward banding, but toward 
ease of field-recording and simplicity of computer entry (at that time, via 
Atari 800 for me).

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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RE: [nysbirds-l] Prospect Park (likely) Caribbean/Cuban Martin continuing

[Shaibal Mitra]

Hi all,

Pat and I headed into Brooklyn based on Doug's photos, which raised doubts 
about it being a Purple Martin. I have to say that our views of the bird in 
life pointed even more strongly away from Purple Martin. In addition to the 
features obvious in the photos, especially the underparts pattern, I saw this 
martin as a smaller and much more "normal" swallow than Purple Martin in terms 
of shape and flight action. For instance, it wasn't strikingly different from 
Tree Swallows, unlike the inevitable impressions given by PUMA over time, which 
reveal grotesque looks, owing to the overall size, long neck, large bill, etc. 
This bird never gave a starling-like impression. The plumage also deviates from 
my experience with PUMA, especially the all white undertail coverts and neat 
division between snowy belly and gray-brown upper breast.

I know very little about the three taxa of "Snowy-bellied Martin" and only 
moderately more about Gray-breasted Martin. I completely understand what Doug 
meant about PUMA being the "null hypothesis" but seeing the bird in life helped 
me to strongly doubt that interpretation.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-125512311-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-125512311-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Doug Gochfeld 
[fresha2...@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 1, 2021 6:28 PM
To: NYSBIRDS-L@cornell edu
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Prospect Park (likely) Caribbean/Cuban Martin continuing

The apparent “Snowy-bellied” Martin on Prospect Lake has been continuing on and 
off in Prospect Park all afternoon, since my last message. It is ranging widely 
around the lake from end-to-end, but the base and tip of the peninsula remain 
good general vantage points. It spent a long time at one point at the SW corner 
of the lake.

Good Birding
-Doug Gochfeld. Brooklyn, NY.
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RE: [nysbirds-l] Spotted Towhee question - Baldwin, LI (Nassau County)

[Shaibal Mitra]

Hi Karen and all,

I haven't looked at a lot of photos of either bird, but my impression is that 
the MA bird's brown areas are browner and its dorsal spots are whiter than the 
LI bird's (grayer on the head and back and buffier on the dorsal spots). But 
this could be an artifact of lighting or photography.

With improved coverage, communication, and photographs it has became possible 
in recent years to link widely spaced detections of vagrants to individual 
birds--much to the amazement of some of us. Most often, however, these events 
involve larger and more conspicuous species, such as pelicans, raptors, and 
shorebirds. Conversely, there are several reasons to believe that we are 
overlooking the vast majority of reclusive passerine vagrants. For instance, 
two things happen each year in mid-late March: known vagrants over-wintering at 
feeders (or like this bird) wander off and disappear, not to be detected 
anywhere else; but at the same time, new vagrants are detected by birders in 
the act of birding, implying that these too had wintered nearby but had gone 
undetected for months. I'd also add that it is the norm, not the exception, for 
vagrants of a given species to occur in bunches, owing to the year to year 
variability in the processes driving vagrancy (e.g., population trends on the 
breeding grounds, environmental conditions conducive to long-distance 
dispersal, etc.).

Even so, it is worthwhile asking the question and publishing evidence for 
identity, when it is found.

Best,
Shai

From: bounce-125386974-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-125386974-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Karen Fung 
[easternblueb...@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 14, 2021 8:13 PM
To: nysbirds-L@cornell.edu
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Spotted Towhee question - Baldwin, LI (Nassau County)

Hi All,
Has anyone considered the possibility that this bird, first reported by Shai 
and Pat on 2 January, is the same individual that was widely reported in 
Bristol County, MA  from 9 November - 15 December 2020?

The Massachusetts  bird was ID'd as an immature, and the few photos I examined 
of that individual looked similar to the many photos of the Baldwin bird.  The 
one audio recording of the Baldwin bird sounds similar to the many recordings 
of the one in MA, but if this is an immature, then the spectrograms don't even 
have to be an exact match if the bird is still learning its song repertoire 
(please correct me if I'm wrong).

Here is the search I used on eBird to produce the reports.  Not sure if you 
need to log in to see the actual query.

https://ebird.org/map/spotow?neg=true&env.minX=-72.1743936079403&env.minY=40.95926453047936&env.maxX=-70.49485869583093&env.maxY=42.03817728084794&zh=true&gp=false&ev=Z&mr=on&bmo=11&emo=2&yr=range&byr=2019&eyr=2021

Thoughts, anyone?  Spotted Towhee is a pretty rare find in the Northeast.  I 
have not tried for this bird yet.

Thanks,
Karen Fung
NYC


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RE:[nysbirds-l] Unusual Horned Lark at Jones Beach West End, Nassau County

[Shaibal Mitra]

Within minutes of posting, Jennifer Wilson-Pines responded with excellent 
photos of the rubescent Horned Lark at JBWE today:

https://flic.kr/p/2kBNrhm


From: Shaibal Mitra
Sent: Sunday, February 14, 2021 7:51 PM
To: NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu)
Subject: Unusual Horned Lark at Jones Beach West End, Nassau County

Among the many Horned Larks, Snow Buntings, and one Lapland Longspur at Jones 
Beach West End (lawn between boat basin pavilion and gazebo) was a very unusual 
lark. In terms of structure and overall plumage pattern, it was clearly a 
Horned Lark, but its face and breast were suffused with an intense, rubescent 
tone (adjective inspired by alternate-plumaged American Pipit). This deep, 
pink-cinnamon color was visible throughout the face and upper breast, but 
yellow was still obvious through it in the rear supercilium and throat. The 
bird showed less black than most female HOLA on the face and breast crescent, 
and it appeared slightly smaller than the numerous adjacent northern alpestris 
(and some praticola and hoyti candidates). I don't know if this is simply an 
odd variant or consistent with an unfamiliar extralimital population of this 
widespread and variable species.

In an example of GTTI (gross tag-team ineptitude), Pat had left her phone home 
today and I left mine in the car, so we had no means of getting photos. We went 
back later and I got some very distant shots before the flock flushed yet again 
and the focal bird vanished (as the LALO had also).

Given the amount of photographic attention this flock has been getting, perhaps 
there are good photos out there.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

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[nysbirds-l] Unusual Horned Lark at Jones Beach West End, Nassau County

[Shaibal Mitra]

Among the many Horned Larks, Snow Buntings, and one Lapland Longspur at Jones 
Beach West End (lawn between boat basin pavilion and gazebo) was a very unusual 
lark. In terms of structure and overall plumage pattern, it was clearly a 
Horned Lark, but its face and breast were suffused with an intense, rubescent 
tone (adjective inspired by alternate-plumaged American Pipit). This deep, 
pink-cinnamon color was visible throughout the face and upper breast, but 
yellow was still obvious through it in the rear supercilium and throat. The 
bird showed less black than most female HOLA on the face and breast crescent, 
and it appeared slightly smaller than the numerous adjacent northern alpestris 
(and some praticola and hoyti candidates). I don't know if this is simply an 
odd variant or consistent with an unfamiliar extralimital population of this 
widespread and variable species.

In an example of GTTI (gross tag-team ineptitude), Pat had left her phone home 
today and I left mine in the car, so we had no means of getting photos. We went 
back later and I got some very distant shots before the flock flushed yet again 
and the focal bird vanished (as the LALO had also).

Given the amount of photographic attention this flock has been getting, perhaps 
there are good photos out there.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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RE: [nysbirds-l] Ferruginous Hawk and another state first

[Shaibal Mitra]

Hi Larry and all,

That is certainly a striking looking owl and a candidate for B. v. subarcticus 
(=wapacuthu in much 20th Century literature).

Salzman (1998, in "Bull's Birds of New York State") cites three specimens of 
Subarctic Great Horned Owl in NYS, from Erie, Bronx, and Suffolk Counties, and 
mentions specimens from NJ and CT as well.

In case you are considering writing this up for NYSARC and/or The Kingbird, 
note that the date of the old Bronx specimen (AMNH 144845) is given as 15 Feb 
1910 by Salzman, but as 15 Feb 1919 by Parkes (who directly examined the 
specimen, in his 1952 Cornell PhD dissertation).

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-125331055-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-125331055-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Larry Scacchetti 
[larrybird4...@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, January 25, 2021 9:52 AM
To: NYSbirds-L@cornell.edu
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Ferruginous Hawk and another state first

Saturday, Justin Muratore and I located the FEHA on Onion Ave at 8:30 am.  The 
bird circle the field and perched in a tree very close to the road.  It offered 
amazing looks before heading East over the tree line towards Celery Ave.

The more amazing bits of the day, for me at least, was the adult subarcticus 
Great Horned Owl.  This subspecies as far as I can tell hasn’t been in the 
lower 48 outside of MN.  The bright with GHOW stood out like a sore thumb.  We 
sat there on the side of the road waiting for the line of speeding cars, 
heading off the the next FEHA sighting, to pass and then we just had this quiet 
moment watching this unreal visitor from the north.

Photos of the owl, and hawk, can be seen here :
https://www.flickr.com/photos/larrybird13/

Good birding,

Larry Scacchetti
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[nysbirds-l] Sad News for the NY Birding Community

[Shaibal Mitra]

Seymour (Sy) Schiff passed away on Thursday, January 14, at the age of 93. I 
learned this from his dear friend Joe Giunta, who had been in touch with Sy 
regularly and made inquiries when he couldn’t be reached. I understand that a 
service has already been held, but I will discuss with Joe how we birders might 
join in honoring him. 

>From his years writing the Kingbird seasonal reports for New York City and 
>Long Island, to his gentlemanly and erudite omnipresence around Jones Beach, 
>to his more wide-ranging birding adventures later in life in Joe’s company, Sy 
>touched New York’s birding community deeply. He will be missed deeply by many, 
>many people.

I know that Sy saw at least 402 species of birds in New York State, and just 
this morning I was thinking of encouraging and helping him to try for the 
Spotted Towhee, very near his home in Baldwin. That will never happen, but I 
will spend some time tonight with my memories of many birds I saw with Sy.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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RE: [nysbirds-l] Probable California Gull Heckscher SP, Suffolk, LI

[Shaibal Mitra]

We spent a short time searching, with no luck. Nobody who was in touch with me 
found it either.

Shai

From: Robert Lewis [rfer...@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2021 2:25 PM
To: Shaibal Mitra
Cc: NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu)
Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Probable California Gull Heckscher SP, Suffolk, LI

Any luck with this bird today?

Bob Lewis

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 9, 2021, at 6:19 PM, Shaibal Mitra  wrote:
>
> This afternoon I saw and photographed a first winter Larus at Field 7 
> Heckscher SP that I think is a good candidate for California Gull--one of the 
> most birds on Long Island among elusive abundant, migratory species.
>
> The bird caught my eye by virtue of its face, and it passed the test I've 
> applied to so many variant Larus over the decades, "can you see this as a 
> Herring Gull?"--I could not. The enormous variability of Herring Gull, in 
> combination with its abundance here, makes identification of California Gull 
> one of the most difficult challenges on Long Island.
>
> I was in the car, which is an advantage in some ways, but a disadvantage in 
> others--such as when it was jumped by car moments later. I saw it only 
> briefly and bare-eyed as it flew, but fortunately it landed again nearby. I 
> re-oriented the car, studied it through the window-mounted scope, took some 
> digi-scoped photos, then posed and answered the question referred to above to 
> myself. I texted for reinforcements, but when I looked up the bird was gone, 
> never to be seen again today, despite much searching by John Gluth, Mike 
> McBrien, and others.
>
> The field marks I noted in the field were its overall smaller than typical 
> HERG size; small and slight bill which was pink-based with sharply demarcated 
> black tip; all-black tail; seemingly less extensive/obvious pale panel in 
> inner primaries when it flew the first time; and solidly dark bases to the 
> greater coverts (contra those of same-aged HERG, checked in reference, which 
> were spangled up as high as I could see).
>
> I'm writing up a detailed description but wanted to get word and photos out 
> for potential follow-up tomorrow:
>
> https://flic.kr/p/2kqGv5V
>
> Shai Mitra
> Bay Shore
>
>
>
>
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[nysbirds-l] Probable California Gull Heckscher SP, Suffolk, LI

[Shaibal Mitra]

This afternoon I saw and photographed a first winter Larus at Field 7 Heckscher 
SP that I think is a good candidate for California Gull--one of the most birds 
on Long Island among elusive abundant, migratory species.

The bird caught my eye by virtue of its face, and it passed the test I've 
applied to so many variant Larus over the decades, "can you see this as a 
Herring Gull?"--I could not. The enormous variability of Herring Gull, in 
combination with its abundance here, makes identification of California Gull 
one of the most difficult challenges on Long Island.

I was in the car, which is an advantage in some ways, but a disadvantage in 
others--such as when it was jumped by car moments later. I saw it only briefly 
and bare-eyed as it flew, but fortunately it landed again nearby. I re-oriented 
the car, studied it through the window-mounted scope, took some digi-scoped 
photos, then posed and answered the question referred to above to myself. I 
texted for reinforcements, but when I looked up the bird was gone, never to be 
seen again today, despite much searching by John Gluth, Mike McBrien, and 
others.

The field marks I noted in the field were its overall smaller than typical HERG 
size; small and slight bill which was pink-based with sharply demarcated black 
tip; all-black tail; seemingly less extensive/obvious pale panel in inner 
primaries when it flew the first time; and solidly dark bases to the greater 
coverts (contra those of same-aged HERG, checked in reference, which were 
spangled up as high as I could see).

I'm writing up a detailed description but wanted to get word and photos out for 
potential follow-up tomorrow:

https://flic.kr/p/2kqGv5V

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore




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[nysbirds-l] The 121st CBC, Southern Nassau County, 2 January 2021

[Shaibal Mitra]

The Southern Nassau County CBC was conducted for the 81st time on 2 January, 
2021, by more than 87 participants in nine territories. Overnight rain lasted 
into the dawn as light drizzle, then cleared as a brisk westerly wind blew up 
around 10:00 am. The wind was especially problematic on the exposed outer 
beaches (which may have been why we found so many beach participants on the 
mainland later in the day). 

The total of 140 species observed on count day was far above our ten-year 
average of 132 and just the fifth time the count has breached the 140 mark, 
following 140 on 1 Jan 2017, 140 on 3 Jan 2009, 142 on 30 Dec 2007, and 142 on 
30 Dec 1995. Among these were many highlights, including three Bald Eagles and 
20 Common Ravens continuing their upsurges, 48 Red Crossbills and five Marsh 
Wrens in three territories each, four Red-shouldered Hawks across two 
territories, three Dovekies in two areas, and Common Eiders penetrating bayside 
waters where we’ve never seen them before. 

An astonishing 32 species were saved by single territories, including three 
Harlequin Ducks and a Red-necked Grebe at Atlantic (sixth consecutive year); 
Black-headed Gull (third straight year and 25th overall), Tricolored Heron 
(second in ten years and 17th overall), 3 Northern Saw-whet Owls, and 2 Common 
Redpolls at Short; Orange-crowned Warbler and Long-eared Owl (45th overall but 
just the second in ten years) at Tobay; Killdeer and Laughing Gull (second in 
ten years and 14th overall) at Five Towns; 15 Redheads at Hempstead; 19 Pine 
Siskins at Mitchell; Common Gallinule (16th overall record but just the fifth 
since 1974), Virginia Rail, and American Bittern (only missed ten times in 81 
years, but missed six of the past ten years) at Massapequa; Lesser Yellowlegs 
(second record in ten years), two Long-billed Dowitchers (formerly regular but 
just the second record in ten years), Rough-legged Hawk (41st overall, but just 
the third in ten years), and Spotted Towhee (fourth Long Island record and 
second for NYSN CBC) in Baldwin.

The worst misses were Barn Owl, Tree Swallow, Brown Thrasher (cw), Purple Finch 
(cw), Lapland Longspur, Chipping Sparrow, and all warblers other than Myrtle 
and Orange-crowned. Continuing in low numbers by long-term standards were 11 
Horned Grebe (ten-year minimum), 2794 Herring Gull, four Great Cormorant, ten 
Gray Catbird, four Hermit Thrush, and 31 Snow Bunting (third straight year <50, 
vs. average of 429 over the prior seven years). 

Taxa recorded from 30 Dec through 5 Jan that were not observed on count-day 
were:
King Eider, Northern Common Eider (Somateria mollissima borealis), Iceland 
Gull, Short-eared Owl, Brown Thrasher, Purple Finch, and Eastern Meadowlark.

Regularly recorded species that were counted in higher than usual numbers 
included 90 White-winged Scoter (ten-year max), 1387 Hooded Merganser (all-time 
max), 569 Mourning Dove (ten-year max), 1679 Sanderling (all-time max), 4821 
Dunlin (ten-year max), five American Woodcock (ten-year max), 661 Great 
Black-backed Gull (ten-year max), 269 Double-crested Cormorant (all-time max; 
formerly rare in winter—for instance, unrecorded 1962-1976), 114 Black-crowned 
Night-Heron (ten-year max), 42 Red-tailed Hawk (all-time max), four Snowy Owls, 
275 Black-capped Chickadee (ten-year max), 78 Red-breasted Nuthatch (ten-year 
max), and 15 Brown Creeper (ten-year max). 

As seems to happen every year on this count, a decision had to be made 
regarding a major rarity, Spotted Towhee this year. As we have in the past, we 
decided to delay reporting for a nominal period, and then to pull the plug and 
allow the count to implode. We’ll never know, but given the weak but 
significant correlation between overall effort and species total in counts of 
this sort, it is quite likely that had we not seen this bird, we would have 
surpassed our own record of 142—and possible that we could have touched 
Captree’s NYS record of 144, or even South Kingstown’s record of 145, still the 
highest north of Cape May, I believe.

We offer our thanks to our participants, area leaders, and several agencies 
that assisted us with access, including New York State Parks, Town of Oyster 
Bay, and Town of Hempstead. 

Patricia Lindsay and Shai Mitra, Bay Shore

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[nysbirds-l] Diverse Late Season Morning Flight/Seawatch

[Shaibal Mitra]

As nocturnal landbird migration has faded to near zero, I've been finding it 
more difficult to make an early start. This morning I reached Robert Moses SP, 
Suffolk County, LI at 08:30 without a clear expectation of what the light wnw 
winds might bring: on the one hand the possibility of a rare irruptive species, 
such as Bohemian Waxwing or even Pine Grosbeak; on the other, waterbirds moving 
in response to freezing temperatures. What I found was a very interesting mix. 
A few American Pipits are still moving and were joined by the first big flocks 
(>100) of Horned Larks and and Snow Buntings I've seen so far this season. 
Among Fringillids, I saw just one flock of American Goldfinches, and single 
American Robin and Downy Woodpecker were calling from the puckerbrush, as if 
bewildered at their new haunts.

But the ocean side was even more lively. Some freshwater ducks on the move 
included a flock of nine Northern Shoveler (a very tough bird at RMSP proper, 
from the competitive patch listing point of view), but the highlights were the 
smaller gulls, moving from east to west in very good numbers: 13 Black-legged 
Kittiwakes, 940 Bonaparte's Gulls, seven tardy Laughing Gulls, and 160 
Ring-billed Gulls. None of these seemed to be lingering to feed in this area, 
but it might be worth checking places like Jones Inlet.

https://ebird.org/checklist/S77187476

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore


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[nysbirds-l] Extralimital--Block Island Veterans Day Count

[Shaibal Mitra]

The Block Island Veterans Day Count was conducted for the 25th time on 16 Nov 
2020 by five participants in four parties. Despite the smaller than usual 
number of participants, coverage was strong, with 32 party-miles on foot and 
two boat crossings during daylight. Wind was an issue, especially early in the 
day, with sustained winds of 24 mph and gusts up to 40 mph making the morning 
ferry ride one of the roughest in memory. The wind undoubtedly hindered 
detection of many species of landbirds also, and the general paucity of these 
birds was noted by all participants: 47 landbird species were eight fewer than 
average, and 67 landbirds per foot-mile were 55 fewer than average. Even so, no 
species was missed for the first time.

Despite the irruptions of many boreal species this fall, our count managed to 
fall on a poor day. We missed Purple Finch, Common Redpoll, and Red Crossbill, 
which have been moving strongly in the region, and barely eked out two Pine 
Siskins, one very vocal Evening Grosbeak, seven Red-breasted and three 
White-breasted Nuthatches, and a Hairy Woodpecker. Lingering migrants, often a 
very interesting feature of this count, were almost completely absent: Eastern 
Phoebe, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Indigo Bunting, and Baltimore Oriole were all 
missed, and the total of three warbler species (Cape May and Palm in addition 
to Myrtle) was surely the lowest ever for this count. A White-eyed Vireo, a 
third record for the November count and two Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers (a 
species recorded for just the ninth time in 25 years) were the most notable 
exceptions to this pattern. The regular CBC half-hardies were all notably 
scarce: seven Golden-crowned and five Ruby-crowned Kinglets, four Hermit 
Thrushes, two Gray Catbirds, zero Brown Thrasher, and five Eastern Towhees were 
all notably below average. The overall pattern of scarcity of thicket birds 
extended to the common species, as American Robin (39, a new minimum), Myrtle 
Warbler (23, also a new minimum), Song Sparrow (184, 34% below average), and 
White-throated Sparrow (78, 64% below average) were scarce across all parts of 
the island.

In contrast, waterfowl and gulls were well represented, which helped to bring 
the overall species total up to 94, nine fewer than average. Seven Virginia 
Rails and 1420 Northern Gannets set new maxima, whereas a total of nine Common 
Loons was a new minimum. No rare species were found, but a number of scarce 
species were tallied, including Snow Goose, Blue-winged Teal, Harlequin Duck, 
American Kestrel, Iceland Gull, and two Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

Full data with summary stats are attached.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore, NY

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BI_VDC_121_Summary.xlsx
Description: BI_VDC_121_Summary.xlsx

RE: [nysbirds-l] Thrasher update & Merlin

[Shaibal Mitra]

This is an amazing bird--thanks to all who have helped get the word out. Pat 
and I enjoyed wonderful looks at it perched up in the Buckthorn this afternoon, 
about 3:35-4:00. The Buckthorn is within a very narrow swathe of dense 
vegetation between the pond and the mowed field where observers must stand. It 
occurred to me today, having observed the Jamaica Bay Sage Thrasher--which hid 
in thick veg but liked to feed on short grass along pathways--that this bird 
might also want to forage for insects on the short grass outside the dense 
vegetation. I suggest that observers therefore stand back from the edge of the 
dense veg, in case the bird wants to feed on the short grass.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-125107758-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-125107758-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Richard Guthrie 
[richardpguth...@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, November 6, 2020 5:47 PM
To: NYSBIRDS_L
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Thrasher update & Merlin

The Sage Thrasher has been seen regularly through today, Nov. 6th. If it 
disappears for a while, it eventually returns to the buckthorn bush on the 
south side of the pond at Ooms Conservation area.

There has also been a Merlin seen a few times today. The Merlin was seen 
carrying some prey item (bird?) at about 3 PM. But, the thrasher has been seen 
since by Will Yandik (fmr Regional Editor of Kingbird).

TRAVEL TIP  If you're coming up via the Taconic State Parkway - be sure to 
stop at Will's farmstand, "Green Acres", on Rt. 82, a very short distance west 
of the TSP. The fresh homemade apple pie is worth the minor detour.

You'll thank me later.
--
Richard Guthrie
New Baltimore,
The Greene County,
New York

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RE: RE:[nysbirds-l] American Golden-Plover - another NYS migrant to worry about?

[Shaibal Mitra]

When Angus posted his query about this species I was immediately reminded of 
two recent conversations with Tom Burke and Doug Futuyma. Despite living more 
than an hour apart in the quite different realms of Westchester and Suffolk 
Counties, Tom and Gale probably share the most similar birding mode to Pat's 
and mine of all our friends: we cover a large area in southeastern NYS, our 
coverage is much more thorough than that of our more list-motivated friends, 
and yet we follow up reports of unusual birds (chase) much more than our most 
purist, patch-working friends. And given that we've been doing it this way for 
decades, we've developed very similar--and probably relatively 
accurate--perceptions of the status of bird species around here.

My conversation with Tom occurred back in August when an American Golden-Plover 
occurred in some (to me) remote and inconvenient part of southeastern NYS; I 
laughed and said, "I think I'll wait for another one!" Tom understood 
completely but he made the point out loud that the species has been rather 
difficult to find over the past couple of years, and I had to concur. The 
conversation with Doug occurred just a few days ago, when he arrived a little 
later than I to a seawatch. I had just had an AMGP fly past, calling, just my 
third of the entire fall, and I knew Doug hadn't connected with one yet. It 
really is possible for active, capable birders to miss this species nowadays.

So when I saw Willie's post, it really gave me pause. Given how infrequently I 
cover western NYS in late summer and fall, I've run into AMGP there often 
enough that I assumed they were even more regular there than here on LI. For 
instance, when Pat and I chased the Swallow-tailed Kites in Hamlin back in 
September, I sort of assumed that picking up our year-bird AMGP would require 
little more than pulling off the road somewhere nearby, on Andy Guthrie's 
instructions. But Andy couldn't offer an easy target, at least on that day.

Willie's post makes the point again about different modes of occurrence 
(agricultural fields vs. lakeshore roosts), and this distinction is very valid 
in my own Long Island/coastal Rhode Island area. Historically there was a 
series of traditional stopover sites for flocks of this species in a very 
specific physiographic belt, ranging from Ridge in central Suffolk County, 
through Riverhead and the North Fork of Long Island, to similar sites in 
Charlestown, Richmond, and South Kingstown, Rhode Island. I'm not a geologist, 
but this belt of flat farmland lies along the Charlestown Moraine and was 
historically much used for potato farming. Nowadays it has been given over 
mostly to turf farming, where it hasn't been destroyed altogether. (There was 
also a very similar satellite site, set off somewhat from this belt, on the 
South Fork of LI, between Water Mill and East Hampton.) In these places, one 
could often see long-staying flocks of AMGP and other shorebirds. But for those 
of us who tire easily of scanning turf fields, there was another mode of 
occurrence, in which this species could be encountered fairly regularly along 
the outer coast.

My perception is that the turf field context has failed almost completely in 
the past several years. Not only are the flocks of AMGP absent, but my 
perception is that they are utterly birdless now--lacking even the flocks of 
Mourning Doves, Killdeer, Tree Swallows, and Starlings that used to be routine. 
The coastal mode still works, but it seems like it's always single birds now, 
never flocks of six or seven as we sometimes saw in the past. My own fall 
records show a paucity of AMGP in my area 2017-2020. They also reveal other 
periods of low detection rates, but I suspect those might be at least partly 
misleading. As Angus noted, I can imagine that in the past, when I didn't 
perceive the species as rare and lucked into it early along the coast, I might 
have spared myself dedicated scanning of the turf! 

https://flic.kr/p/2jW26Qu

I fear that this species is yet another once common one that we will come to 
miss in the future.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-125041945-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-125041945-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Willie D'Anna 
[dannapot...@roadrunner.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2020 12:14 PM
To: '& [NYSBIRDS]'
Subject: RE:[nysbirds-l] American Golden-Plover - another NYS migrant to worry 
about?

Like Angus, I also have noticed fewer reports and smaller numbers of
American Golden-Plover in Western New York. I live on Lake Ontario in
Niagara County where most autumns I could see this species without any
special effort. That is, I'm not one to hunt down a species for my year
list, unless I am doing a big year, but I still would find them. A few years
ago, I noticed that newer birders were chasing after reports of this species
for their year list and I assumed that they simply did not understand their
habitat prefe

RE: [nysbirds-l] Bonaparte's Gulls

[Shaibal Mitra]

This discussion has been very interesting. I've enjoyed comparing the 
perceptions and experiences of many friends around the region. Having birded 
the coastal Northeast for over 40 years, I've witnessed several kinds of 
changes in the status of Bonaparte's Gull in my "expanded patch" of coastal 
Long Island and Rhode Island. Willie's points about different modes of 
occurrence (early fall migrants, late fall migrants, over-wintering birds, 
spring migrants, over-summering non-breeders) deserves careful attention, as 
does Shane's observation that large counts of this species vary greatly not 
only from year to year, but also from day to day within a season. The 
complexity of this species' modes of occurrence and its extreme variability 
from site to site and from year to year make it difficult to draw firm 
conclusions about its overall status. Ironically, these challenges have given 
us a bit of a refuge from our worst fears as we've watched the diminishing 
numbers--"maybe they're just doing something different, somewhere else."

In my own areas of concentrated field work, little doubt remains that, at a 
minimum, really large counts have been much less frequent for many years now, 
and the species has been missed in recent years on various CBCs where this 
would have been unthinkable in the past (though it is true that there have 
"always" been scattered "bad years" when Bonies were uncommon on all the 
counts). Drawing on Rick's lead, I compiled 50 years of data from four CBCs 
with which I've been deeply involved for many years: Southern Nassau County, 
Captree, Montauk, and South Kingstown (RI). These offer a fair east-west 
transect of the Atlantic Ocean shore of southern New England (to which LI is 
hereby ceded, operationally). All of these CBCs have had historical totals over 
1,000, many years with totals in the 300-800 range, and astonishing dips in 
recent years. The data illustrate the inter-annual volatility of numbers very 
well, but also the absence of big spikes for about 20 years and extreme 
scarcity over the past five consecutive years. In a slightly contrasting 
approach to Rick's, I think raw counts are more informative than 
effort-adjusted detection rates for this species. On these four counts at 
least, the large numbers (when present) are tallied via dedicated effort to 
particular sites, rather than accumulated as sums of small counts. Note also 
that the big spike at Montauk in the late 80s was actually over 21,000--I cut 
it off at 6,000 so as not to reduce the scale for the other data:

https://flic.kr/p/2jUWHDm

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-125036546-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-125036546-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of rc...@nyc.rr.com 
[rc...@nyc.rr.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2020 10:07 AM
To: 'Willie D'Anna'; NYSBIRDS-L
Cc: 'Emily Peyton'; 'Richard Veit'
Subject: RE: [nysbirds-l] Bonaparte's Gulls

Willie, that is very interesting. I had a quick look at CBC results - for NJ 
rather than NY, so as to avoid including any "Niagara Falls concentration 
effect," and the recent trend does appear to be a decline (with a few 
‘exception’ years mixed in). In this graph "120" is 2019, and numbers extend 
back to turn of century. I know "birds per party hour" is a rough measure (I 
was a CBC compiler for > 25 years, potential party-hour reporting vagaries 
acknowledged), but the numbers do suggest either a decline in population or a 
shift in wintering behavior.

Sorry, this was a quick take, now back to the ol’ day job…

Rick

[cid:40F92B697637904CA54EDB32EC700E76@cornell.edu]

-Original Message-
From: bounce-125036389-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
 On Behalf Of Willie D'Anna
Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2020 9:34 AM
To: '& [NYSBIRDS]' 
Subject: RE:[nysbirds-l] Bonaparte's Gulls

I have enjoyed the recent posts about Bonaparte's Gulls. Some of the highest 
concentrations of Bonaparte's Gulls in the world occur along the Niagara River, 
with estimates of 50,000 to 100,000 on some days. It is a spectacle to witness 
this blizzard of gulls on the Niagara but it seems that numbers have declined, 
particularly in the last ten to 20 years. It is unfortunate that the only 
evidence that I can offer for this are my own subjective observations. Counts 
of gulls on the Niagara have been done sporadically and it is only in recent 
years that organized counts have been conducted on a yearly basis, with three 
counts per season (late fall/winter), by the Canadian Wildlife Service.

Numbers of Bonies, as they are affectionately called here, month to month along 
the Niagara, are highly interesting. Twenty to fifty years ago, numbers would 
begin to build on the Niagara in late July with most of these birds consisting 
of one-year-olds. By mid August, there would be a significant influx of adults, 
only just finished with their breeding activities in Canada. Hundreds of 
individuals could be seen at the source of the river (

[nysbirds-l] 7th Annual Seatuck Long Island Birding Challenge

[Shaibal Mitra]

The Seatuck Long Island Birding Challenge was conducted on Saturday, 26 
September, for the seventh year. We thank Enrico Nardone, Stephane Perreault 
and others at Seatuck for the effort and care they devoted to revising and 
refining the rules to ensure participants’ fun and safety in this strange 
pandemic period.

The rules changes driven by covid concerns included a requirement that each 
team restrict its activities to a single county (or in the case of sprawling 
Suffolk County, to either the four western towns or the more easterly towns), 
but also relaxed the requirement for team members to travel and bird together. 
In combination, this probably improved overall coverage of the island and 
yielded a collective tally of 194 species, 10 more than the previous highest 
annual total for this count. This achievement is even more notable for having 
been made on a signiciantly later data and on a much less active migration day 
than that of the previous high tally. Also notable was our failure, for the 
first time in seven challenges, to add any new species to the cumulative 
species list, which still stands at 235. This is further evidence of the 
overall thoroughness of the teams this year in detecting uncommon, hard to 
find, and localized species, even in the absence of rarities.

We had 8 teams in the field, with a total of 29 participants, and each of the 
five designated areas was represented. As noted above, it was not a major 
flight day, but the weather was mostly very benign all day long, without heavy 
winds or other impediments to birding effort. It was 63-75 F, overcast with 
good visibility in most places early, then warming up with sun. The biggest 
issue was patchy fog in the morning that reduced visibility for some.

Area champions were:
Brooklyn: Rails Against the Machine (Shane Blodgett, Rob Jett, Heydi Lopes, Tom 
Preston, and Mike Yuan) coming in at 108.

Queens: Ladybyrders (Mary Normandia, Lisa Scheppke, Amy Simmons, Meryl Ackley, 
and Phil Ribilow), tallying 111 species.

Eastern Suffolk: Masked Tityras (Patricia Lindsay, Shai Mitra, Mike Cooper and 
Doug Futuyma) coming in with 130. Three additional teams covered Eastern 
Suffolk: The Bushwackers (Richard Gostic and Bob McGrath), Savage Trackers 
(Stephen and Bob Savage), and The TWIN ROSE breasted Grosbeaks (Raina Angelier, 
Cayla, Iris and Craig Rosenhagen).

And finally, the two leading teams achieved totals only two species apart:

The Classic Birders (Tim Healy, Matt Klein, Ryan Mandelbaum, and Stephane 
Perreault), covering Nassau, was the runner-up team with 139 species.

Pteam Ptarmigeddon covered Western Suffolk and came in overall first at 141, 
wresting back the Twitchers Trophy from the Outlaws (whose misdemeanors had 
resulted in their dispersion into different teams). The Pteam has competed in 
the Challenge with the same members every year, won the trophy the first three 
years, and is now back on top.

Every single team had a least one “save,” a species not recorded by any other 
team. Tied for third were Pteam Ptarmigeddon and The Classic Birders, with 5 
saves each. Second place went to Ladybyrders with 6 saves. The winner of the 
informal Hunters’ Hoard award (a cache of canned spinach, creamed corn, cream 
of mushroom soup, cling peaches, sardines, and Fancy Feast ) was the Masked 
Tityras, with 11 saves! 

Photos and more information about the event will be updated on the Seatuck 
website shortly:

https://seatuck.org/birding-challenge/

We hope to see everybody back out in the field next year, under less stressful 
circumstances.

Shai Mitra & Patricia Lindsay
Bay Shore

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RE: [nysbirds-l] Fort Tilden Diurnal Migrants

[Shaibal Mitra]

I haven't had a chance yet to unpack and eBird my notebook, but flights at 
Robert Moses SP on Friday and Saturday were excellent and broadly similar to 
those described by Steve, further west.

Steve and I have been doing this style of observation for many decades now, but 
it is a pleasure to note that the cadre of visible migration aficionados has 
grown steadily over the past ten years, since Benjamin van Doren led a 
coordinated study across multiple sites in the broader region.  Doug Gochfeld, 
Shane Blodgett, Sean Sime, and Brendan Fogarty (among others) have been 
watching morning flight from several sites around the West Rockaway Inlet and 
Jamaica Bay, while the Fire Island Inlet area now receives excellent coverage 
from Brent Bomkamp, Michael McBrien, Pete Morris, and Taylor Sturm (and many 
others). Brent and Taylor have furthermore invested many mornings of effort at 
Crab Meadow Beach, on the Long Island Sound shore of western Suffolk County, 
historically a data deficient zone for this sort of study.

The western end of Fire Island remains my favorite, though, and despite my vows 
to experiment at other sites, I seldom have the strength of will to tear myself 
away. The greatest merits of this stretch of beach are its narrowness (one can 
easily see the airspace from ocean to inlet), its remoteness from the mainland 
of Long Island, and its generally impoverished resident landbird community. 
Thus, the single Blue Jay we saw yesterday was greeted with tremendous 
excitement, even bouts of indelicate language, because a count of one there 
exceeds the expected tally by a larger (infinite?) factor than Steve's count of 
260 on the Rockaway Peninsula. Yes, it is definitely already "one of those 
years." In addition to the most familiar and abundant irruptives (Red-breasted 
Nuthatch, Purple Finch, and Pine Siskin), Red-bellied, Downy, and Hairy 
Woodpeckers have been migrating through over the past two weeks, and this 
weekend, the highly prized White-breasted Nuthatch joined the procession of 
"sedentary forest residents" undertaking the wild ride over miles of open water 
and sand dunes. There's even been a recent claim of that holy grail of the 
barrier beach, Tufted Titmouse, so anything seems possible!

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-125001915-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-125001915-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Steve Walter 
[swalte...@verizon.net]
Sent: Saturday, October 3, 2020 8:17 PM
To: NYSBIRDS
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Fort Tilden Diurnal Migrants

Quite an impressive movement of non-raptor land birds at Fort Tilden this 
morning. Most notable has been Cedar Waxwing, with around 900 tallied (after 
some 600 yesterday). Pretty good by Long Island standards was 260 Blue Jays. 
Impressive – if you forget some of the historical numbers – were over 400 
Northern Flickers. And after a lone Pine Siskin yesterday, a couple of flocks 
totaled to about 50 today. Coupled with occasional Purple Finches, it looks 
like one of those years. Lots of other things moving, but too complicated to 
count more than a few species.  I should be counting hawks. You know I love 
them, but they’re such wimps. 7-10 mph winds just aren’t good enough for them 
(on the beach). Less than 100 tallied, and then completely done in by a wind 
shift.

I should slip in that when visiting the beachfront in this area, check the 
ocean. There’s been a nice pod of Bottlenose Dolphins around  and a couple of 
Humpback Whales. Royal and Caspian Terns, too.

It’s fair to say that the diurnal flight echoed the overnight flight. I stopped 
off at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, where I found a spectacular warbler (and 
other land birds) show. Also in the area, I stopped off at the newly opened 
Sunset Cove Park (next to where the Burrowing Owl was last year). It was 
extremely lively with phoebes, sparrows, and warblers that don’t mind open 
areas. Looks like a promising site to consider when you’re in the area.

Steve Walter
Bayside, NY

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RE:[nysbirds-l] Queens Yellow-headed Blackbird

[Shaibal Mitra]

Hi Paul and all,

Given that growth (or fault) bars and their interpretation are probably 
unfamiliar to many readers, this bird offers a learning opportunity. If a bird 
experiences nutritional or other stress while its flight feathers are actively 
growing, faint bars (thin bands of weaker feather structure perpendicular to 
the shafts) appear on the growing feathers at positions associated with each 
feather's stage of growth when the stress occurred. These are often visible on 
the fully grown wings and tail of a bird, and their alignment or lack of 
alignment is often indicative of age: adult passerines obviously can't shed and 
replace all their wing feathers at once (though it's not unusual for adults to 
lose their tail feathers simultaneously), so they replace their wing feathers 
in sequence, often just prior to southbound migration. Thus, the growth bars of 
adults of these species are not aligned, falling instead in different positions 
based on how well grown each feather was when the stress(es) occurred. 
Conversely, juvenile birds grow their first set of flight feathers 
simultaneously, resulting in alignment of growth bars, if present.

The Queens Yellow-headed Blackbird is an adult, based on its almost entirely 
white primary coverts. Thus, it would not show aligned growth bars (which were 
posited as possible points of weakness for the damaged feathers on this 
individual).

The question of how this bird's plumage came to such a state intrigues me. It's 
difficult for me to imagine people keeping this species, which sounds basically 
like a chainsaw, as a cage bird, but I've been told never to underestimate 
people's capacity for treating animals unreasonably. On the other hand, these 
dates are exactly when this species is expected in the East as one of our most 
regular long-distance passerine vagrants.

I wonder whether rather than "captivity" per se, this bird somehow got into 
something like a greenhouse, chicken coop, or other confinement that resulted 
in the feather damage.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-124977092-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-124977092-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Paul R Sweet 
[sw...@amnh.org]
Sent: Friday, September 25, 2020 8:50 AM
To: nysbirds-l@cornell.edu
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Queens Yellow-headed Blackbird

Thanks as always for the excellent post Tom. One thing that I have not seen 
mentioned on this forum is that the Flushing Meadows Yellow-headed Blackbird 
has clearly spent time in captivity. The clean cuts to the flight feathers and 
the cage wear on the tail are classic indicators of a caged bird. I’ve heard 
some mention on other forums of fault bars, this is not what we are seeing. 
Gabriel Willow has some flight shots on his ebird list that show this well 
https://ebird.org/checklist/S73707073

Good birding, Paul

Paul Sweet
Collection Manager
Department of Ornithology
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th Street
New York, NY 10024

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RE:[nysbirds-l] Kingbird Mailing Problem

[Shaibal Mitra]

I'm writing with an update regarding the Kingbird mailing problems. 

In following up with people waiting for long overdue hard copies, we learned 
that some (but not all) involved people who had unknowingly renewed their 
memberships under "digital only."

But we know that in other cases hard copies are really out there somewhere. 
Yesterday (21 September) we finally received our own missing hard copy of The 
Kingbird via USPS!

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-124927292-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-124927292-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Shaibal Mitra 
[shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, September 9, 2020 8:57 AM
To: NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu)
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Kingbird Mailing Problem

Many of the participants in this forum are also members of the New York State 
Ornithological Association and are familiar with its quarterly journal, The 
Kingbird. Even those who are not members might be interested to know more about 
the organization and its publications, which members currently may choose to 
receive digitally or in print (but not both, for logistical reasons):

https://nybirds.org/

Kingbird Volume 70 Number 2 was published digitally on 12 August and mailed on 
13 August, but it has come to our attention that many members expecting hard 
copies still haven't received them. The problem appears to be with the USPS, 
because people who have not received copies are set up on our mailing list 
exactly like those who have received them. We apologize for the inconvenience 
and would like (a) to learn the full scope of the problem; and (b) provide 
digital access to as many affected members as possible.

If you have been expecting a hard copy of Kingbird 70-2 and have not received 
it please email me and copy Patricia Lindsay at gelochelidon AT gmail.com.

Sincerely,
Shaibal S. Mitra
Editor, The Kingbird
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[nysbirds-l] Kingbird Mailing Problem

[Shaibal Mitra]

Many of the participants in this forum are also members of the New York State 
Ornithological Association and are familiar with its quarterly journal, The 
Kingbird. Even those who are not members might be interested to know more about 
the organization and its publications, which members currently may choose to 
receive digitally or in print (but not both, for logistical reasons):

https://nybirds.org/

Kingbird Volume 70 Number 2 was published digitally on 12 August and mailed on 
13 August, but it has come to our attention that many members expecting hard 
copies still haven't received them. The problem appears to be with the USPS, 
because people who have not received copies are set up on our mailing list 
exactly like those who have received them. We apologize for the inconvenience 
and would like (a) to learn the full scope of the problem; and (b) provide 
digital access to as many affected members as possible.

If you have been expecting a hard copy of Kingbird 70-2 and have not received 
it please email me and copy Patricia Lindsay at gelochelidon AT gmail.com.

Sincerely,
Shaibal S. Mitra
Editor, The Kingbird
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RE:[nysbirds-l] Little Gull Fire Island Inlet, Suffolk County

[Shaibal Mitra]

The Little Gull has not been seen so far this morning, but the inlet remains 
very lively. In addition to a juvenile Bonaparte's Gull, an older bird was seen 
early this morning, along with single Black and Roseate Terns and many hundreds 
of common gulls, terns, and shorebirds.

Most recently, John Gluth just picked out a Marbled Godwit on the flats between 
Robert Moses SP and Oak Beach.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-124891088-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-124891088-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Shaibal Mitra 
[shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu]
Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2020 11:25 AM
To: NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu)
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Little Gull Fire Island Inlet, Suffolk County

A juvenile Little Gull is present with large numbers of gulls and terns, 
including at least one juvenile Bonaparte's Gull, in the Fire Island Inlet, 
Suffolk County.

Best viewed from the parking lot of the erstwhile Oak Beach in, at the start of 
the Oak Beach Rd, but also potentially from the western end of Robert Moses SP 
or Democrat Point.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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[nysbirds-l] Little Gull Fire Island Inlet, Suffolk County

[Shaibal Mitra]

A juvenile Little Gull is present with large numbers of gulls and terns, 
including at least one juvenile Bonaparte's Gull, in the Fire Island Inlet, 
Suffolk County.

Best viewed from the parking lot of the erstwhile Oak Beach in, at the start of 
the Oak Beach Rd, but also potentially from the western end of Robert Moses SP 
or Democrat Point.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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RE: [nysbirds-l] Brown Booby- Indian Lake, Hamilton County

[Shaibal Mitra]

David Harrison reports the Brown Booby is still present at Indian Lake, 
Hamilton County, at the same spot where it has been reported recently.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-124851486-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-124851486-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Max Epstein 
[mxepstei...@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2020 9:24 AM
To: nysbirds-l
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Brown Booby- Indian Lake, Hamilton County

There is currently a Brown Booby on Indian Lake in Hamilton County. Followed up 
on a ebird report from yesterday with promising photos. Being seen from 
coordinates below:

(43.7218944, -74.3099064)

Scoped across the lake.
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RE: Re:[nysbirds-l] Orchard oriole female- first fall

[Shaibal Mitra]

Orchard Orioles have increased a lot as breeders in the whole New York City 
area over the past 20 years, but this might easily have been a migrant. This 
species is one of the earliest to depart our area and is seldom seen after mid 
August.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-124853306-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-124853306-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Jonathan Perez 
[jonathan.ape...@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, August 16, 2020 9:05 AM
To: nysbird...@list.cornell.edu
Subject: Re:[nysbirds-l] Orchard oriole female- first fall

Likely a breeding bird, as they are now breeding in westchester—

>
> On Aug 15, 2020, at 10:01 PM, Jonathan Perez  
> wrote:
>
> I had my first orchard oriole of the fall migration. I was running the Bronx 
> River parkway  halfway between crest wood and bronxville.
>
> The bird had a distinctive two-note “chuck” and white edged feathers on the 
> wing bars, olive upper parts and yellow underparts. I like a Baltimore 
> Oriole, it lacked any bright orange, black hood, and no orange on chest.
>
> Yellow overall and larger- I at first thought it was a chat. But it became 
> apparent it was a female orchard oriole, also the long down curved bill.
>
> Nothing super special, but nice to see a migratory bird again.
>
> JP
>
> Please excuse my brevity.  Sent from my iPhone

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[nysbirds-l] Cupsogue Update

[Shaibal Mitra]

To Andrew's good news from Jamaica Bay, where we may now realistically hope for 
better habitat this season, I am pleased to add that shorebirds are moving well 
on Long Island at present.

Today, at the Moriches Bay flats north of Cupsogue County Park, Suffolk County, 
Patricia Lindsay and I enjoyed the sights and sounds of hundreds of 
Short-billed Dowitchers (including several well-marked prairie-breeding 
hendersoni) and smaller but good numbers of Least and Semipalmated 
Sandpipers--many in active migration from east to west. 

Highlights included a Whimbrel (also seen earlier in the day by Doug Futuyma), 
eight Western Sandpipers in bright alternate plumage (a large count of adults 
at this site, where such birds are usually scarce and detected as singles), and 
flocks of migrating Lesser Yellowlegs totaling 46 (again, a good number for 
this sort of habitat, where this species seldom lingers long). The adult 
Eastern Willets are ganging up (we counted 84) and have been joined by 2-3 
rather worn-out looking Western Willets.

Doug reported six Royal Terns and 16 Piping Plovers, of which we connected with 
four and 11, respectively.

This is a reminder that Long Island's still-extensive marshes and flats will be 
hosting thousands of shorebirds over the next several months. Most of the best 
habitat is relatively inaccessible, but our regional birders are constantly 
discovering and re-discovering the many little seams and puddles around and 
near the big marshes, where we can still glimpse small fractions of the large 
and exhilarating shorebird flux, under the appropriate circumstances. The East 
Pond is, or can be, the greatest of these; but as we wait for it to come into 
shape there are lots of other places to look.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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[nysbirds-l] Bronzed Cowbird Nickerson Beach, Nassau

[Shaibal Mitra]

This morning Pat Lindsay and I saw what we believe was a Bronzed Cowbird at 
Nickerson Beach, Nassau County, Long Island.

It appeared all dull black (not glossy--but light bad), with no pale edgings to 
any feathers. My immediate field impression was Bronzed Cowbird (bill and head 
shape, overall shape, and that tall stance with lots of leg visible above and 
below the joint), but I could not see red color in eye. My conclusion shifted 
to Shiny Cowbird.  We considered Red-winged Blackbird, but the bill was too 
deep and too short, and the bird showed no red feathers or pale-edged feathers 
at all. Never gave any impression of BHCO or COGR, but I ruled these out 
anyway. Conclusion shifted back to Bronzed, and now the question is, ruling out 
Shiny. Snapped three bad photos, then the bird flew west and we could not 
re-find.

Here is my description as written in the field:

Blackbird:
all black, did not appear glossy but light bad.
bill appeared heavier and shorter than RWBL, longer and more sharply pointed 
than BHCO.
No reddish feathers on shoulders, no pale fringing on any feathers.
Head black, like body.
Appeared slightly larger than BHCO and slightly smaller than RWBL.
Tail had a subtle grackle shape (but short) [meaning that] it broadened toward 
the end and inner rr longer than outer.
Flew--called "chuck" not unlike RWBL but like nothing BHCO does.

Immature male Bronzed apparently can have a dull eye, the color of which might 
not have been visible under the circumstances. Shiny can look heavy-billed with 
a similar merge of culmen to long, flatly curved crown, but I think it is 
small--more BHCO size.

Searches this afternoon produced a possible re-sighting. The bird was 
originally seen on the grass at the northwest corner of the beach parking lot, 
just north of the little pond where the Mallards go to look bad.

This site is sensitive and restricted to Nassau County residents (we bumbled 
in). The holiday beach scene is already intense.

https://flic.kr/p/2jhLrNC

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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RE:[nysbirds-l] Brown Pelicans Robert Moses SP, Suffolk

[Shaibal Mitra]

I wrapped up my morning work duties as quickly as I could then raced down to 
join Pat at 09:05. By then she'd seen at least two of the pelicans return from 
the east, mill around, then work eastward out of sight again. We gave it 25 
minutes of careful effort without any further sign of the pelicans, and then 
Pat suggested we try further east, at Field 5.

Such a maneuver, in my mind, is a forlorn hope--a futile displacement behavior 
to distract oneself from the pain of failure.

But I agreed.

Her suggestion that we try Fields 3 and 4 along the way was intolerable, 
though, so we pulled in at Field 5 and set up. Almost immediately, I saw two 
long-winged seabirds milling over the ocean, off to the east! We savored the 
Brown Pelicans for a minute or two before they worked their way out of sight to 
the east.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-124680383-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-124680383-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Shaibal Mitra 
[shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu]
Sent: Friday, June 5, 2020 8:32 AM
To: NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu)
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Brown Pelicans Robert Moses SP, Suffolk

Patricia Lindsay reports a trio of Brown Pelicans flying west to east on the 
oceanfront at Robert Moses SP, Suffolk County, Long Island.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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RE: [nysbirds-l] A blast from the past

[Shaibal Mitra]

Thanks for sharing, Hugh--very cool!

Andy had spoken with me about that day, but I wasn't aware of Ned's blog post. 
Lots to think about there.

Best,
Shai

From: bounce-124680470-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-124680470-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Hugh McGuinness 
[hdmcguinn...@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, June 5, 2020 8:56 AM
To: NYSBIRDS-L
Subject: [nysbirds-l] A blast from the past

In case you missed this Ned Brinkley blog post, which is about the joy of 
migration, it features NY birders, especially one in particular whom many of 
you may have lost track of.

https://birdcast.info/scientific-discussion/migration-story-23-may-2020-magic-on-the-eastern-shore-of-virginia/

Hugh

--
Hugh McGuinness
Washington, D.C.
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[nysbirds-l] Brown Pelicans Robert Moses SP, Suffolk

[Shaibal Mitra]

Patricia Lindsay reports a trio of Brown Pelicans flying west to east on the 
oceanfront at Robert Moses SP, Suffolk County, Long Island.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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RE: [nysbirds-l] Amazing Cayuga Pool in Genesee County and other rarities

[Shaibal Mitra]

Thanks for sharing this spectacular record, Willie, as well as all the other 
great highlights from the swamps!

Gull-billed Tern was reported by DeKay (1844) to occur around the Great Lakes 
in New York State, at a time when it was not known from Long Island (e.g., by 
Giraud). DeKay's vague statement is shared by Eaton (1910) but was ignored by 
Bull (1974).

It's interesting to note that this species, like Caspian Tern, has an 
inexplicable geographic distribution--practically cosmopolitan, but highly 
localized within almost every larger region.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-124653609-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-124653609-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Willie D'Anna 
[dannapot...@roadrunner.com]
Sent: Monday, May 25, 2020 3:28 PM
To: 'nysbirds-l'
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Amazing Cayuga Pool in Genesee County and other rarities

Congratulations to Peter Yoerg on one of the best finds ever in Western NY 
(yesterday evening) – an adult in breeding plumage GULL-BILLED TERN. With 
little information to go on other than somewhere in Iroquois NWR, Josh Ketry 
was out at Cayuga Pool early this morning and he relocated, photographed, and 
confirmed the identification of the tern. Many birders have been able to see it 
so far today. The bird spends its time sitting in and flying over Cayuga Pool, 
as well as nearby Kumpf Marsh. At Cayuga Pool, it is usually off to the back 
left (not the extreme left) and can be difficult to see because of cattails 
when sitting. It is much easier to see in flight. A scope is highly recommended.

Cayuga Pool is being drained, which we have learned over the years can be very 
productive for birds. Other birds at Cayuga Pool today were: the continuing 
SNOWY EGRET found by Josh Ketry and singing young male ORCHARD ORIOLE, a GLOSSY 
IBIS (found by Josh Ketry and identified by Chris Wood), two WILSON’S 
PHALAROPES found by Mike Morgante, a WHIMBREL found by Joe Mitchell, and about 
300 shorebirds, mostly Semipalmated Sandpipers, with some Semi Plovers, Least 
Sandpipers, Dunlin, one Pectoral Sandpiper, and a few Short-billed Dowitchers. 
My thanks to Andy Guthrie for the shorebird report.

At nearby Tonawanda WMA, the CATTLE EGRET found by Bev Seyler two days ago 
continues. It was seen from the north-south dike through Ruddy Marsh West 
(access from Rt 77) and also seen back where it was discovered, at Paddy 2 
(access from Griswold St) and most recently, on the dike between Paddys 3 and 
4. Maps of Tonawanda WMA may be found online at the DEC web site, here: 
https://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/106378.html

At about 1:15 today, Joe Mitchell had an adult SWAINSON’S HAWK fly over his 
home in Alden, Erie County, heading northeast. Perhaps someone will get lucky 
and see it at the swamps and hopefully, David Brown will get it at the Braddock 
Bay hawkwatch.

Good birding!
Willie
--
Willie D'Anna
Wilson, NY
dannapotterATroadrunnerDOTcom

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[nysbirds-l] The Spring Shorebird Migration So Far

[Shaibal Mitra]

The past several weeks we’ve experienced an unusually frequent series of storms 
with easterly winds and rain. Birding them has been interesting: we’ve watched 
the age distribution of Lesser Black-backed Gulls shift from older to younger 
from one storm to the next (full adults were 20/36 at RMSP on 13 April but 0/24 
on 26 April); we’ve picked up some oddities (a very early Common Tern on 13 
April, a Black-legged Kittiwake on 21 April, and a Black-headed Gull on the 
24th); but mostly we’ve been enjoying an interesting start to the spring 
shorebird migration.

Since Pat and I began birding together in April 1999, our overall pattern of 
coverage has been fairly uniform; even this year, while restricting ourselves 
mostly to southwestern Suffolk County rather than ranging more widely from 
Staten Island to Rhode Island, we feel that we’ve obtained a good feel for the 
tempo and mode of the migration. One thing we’ve noticed over the years is a 
pattern of correlation among some of the scarcer migrant shorebirds. Our first 
spring together, 1999, is a good case in point: one or both of us recorded 
American Golden-Plover, Pectoral Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper, Ruff, and 
Red-necked Phalarope; Whimbrels were found in better than usual numbers by 
others. Furthermore, it was a good spring for Lesser yellowlegs—a more numerous 
species but one that shares habitat preferences with most of the species just 
named and like them is much more numerous in fall than spring.

Apart from Lesser Yellowlegs, these species are scarce enough in spring that 
Pat and I tend to detect them during ca. 30-50% of springs, in the course of 
our habitual field work (Ruff in 6/20 springs through 2019, with hope remaining 
in 2020). Their apparent co-occurrence in “good springs” and mutual absence in 
“bad springs” has been a topic of discussion: assuming it’s genuine and not an 
artifact of small samples, is it driven by year to year variation in habitat 
conditions or by variation in weather and migration dynamics? April 2020 has 
been a very good spring for this cohort so far, and probably my best ever for 
Lesser Yellowlegs (a conservative estimate of 50 at Captree Island on 24 April 
is an exceptional number for spring on LI).

In discussing this with Doug Gochfeld the other day, he noted that all of these 
species undertake long flights northward and even northeastward over our 
region, making them prone to grounding by easterly storms. I agree with this 
interpretation, and note further that other rare-in-spring shorebird species, 
whose spring migrations from southeastern north America are oriented sharply 
westward rather than northward, have been absent this year: Black-necked Stilt, 
American Avocet, Marbled Godwit, Western Willet, Long-billed Dowitcher, Western 
Sandpiper, and Wilson’s Phalarope.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

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Re: [nysbirds-l] spring arrivals: Eastern Phoebe

[Shaibal Mitra]

Given that a couple of people responded to last night's post, asking me about 
the enigma of westward flights of birds in spring on Long Island, I thought I'd 
share this with the list. It's not an exaggeration to say that this very 
question changed my life!

I came to Long Island in April 1996 as a post-doc to run the bird-banding 
component of a study of Lyme Disease at Fire Island Lighthouse. In those first 
weeks, I was amazed to find the warblers and tanagers hitting my nets from east 
to west. Paul Buckley said "of course"--he'd been seeing this for almost 50 
years at that time. And it wasn't a complete shock to me, either. As a native 
Rhode Islander, I'd learned to appreciate that fall migrants that wind up on 
Block Island overnight funnel back to the north over the course of the morning, 
to jump back to the mainland before resuming their southward course.

Regarding yesterday's kinglets, the idea is, if conditions aren't perfect 
(southerly winds all the way), the nocturnal migrants that make it ashore on 
spring nights land on the beach and are dis-inclined to cross the huge bay to 
the north. They stream westward in a still not completely understood way until 
they regain the LI mainland, where they rest, feed, etc., before undertaking 
the next big nocturnal leap to the north. It's a re-orientation movement to get 
them into decent habitat sooner rather than later.

The recently described westward flights of Gannets in the Sound and on the 
ocean are something different. When purposefully migrating, Gannets go west to 
east in spring and east to west in fall--just as you would suppose. But in 
spring especially, they are tracking menhaden and other migratory fish, and 
they  seek them in unexpected places, like the Sound and even in the shallow 
bays, at times. These movements are purely facultative, tracking food. Another 
dimension to understand about foraging seabirds is that they tend to get 
drifted by the wind and/or tide, so there is often a "correction flight" where 
it looks like they are moving in a specific direction, but what they are really 
doing is flying to regain their preferred feeding position after being drifted.

All the best,
Shai

> On Mar 27, 2020, at 5:43 PM, Shaibal Mitra  wrote:
>
> Bob's and Sarah's report clearly indicates a good flight overnight. Patricia 
> Lindsay and I were fortunate to be able to observe some of this flight 
> further east on the barrier beach of southwestern Suffolk County. 
> Particularly abundant here were Slate-colored Juncos, Song Sparrows, 
> Golden-crowned Kinglets, and Yellow-shafted Flickers; also included were two 
> each of Phoebe, Brown Creeper, and Field Sparrow, and best of all was a 
> Vesper Sparrow (singing!) from a little patch of Arctostaphylos moorland on 
> Captree Island (nice looking spot, but not a chance of local breeding).
>
> We walked around a little between Robert Moses SP golf course and Democrat 
> Point; it was a good day because we learned a little bit more about our 
> patch, watching how westward-moving Flickers, Golden-crowned Kinglets, and 
> Myrtle Warblers behave at the puckerbrush-moorland ecotone.
>
> Shai Mitra
> Bay Shore
> 
> From: bounce-124500941-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
> [bounce-124500941-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Robert Paxton 
> [r...@columbia.edu]
> Sent: Friday, March 27, 2020 5:28 PM
> To: NYSBIRDS
> Subject: [nysbirds-l] spring arrivals: Eastern Phoebe
>
> We found eleven Eastern Phoebes in about a half-mile (120th street to 110th 
> street) at the  north end of Riverside Park, Manhattan, in about an hour (4 
> to 5 p.m). We found none in a similar walk yesterday. No other spring 
> migrants observed today.
>  Bob Paxton and Sarah Plimpton
> --
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RE: [nysbirds-l] spring arrivals: Eastern Phoebe

[Shaibal Mitra]

Bob's and Sarah's report clearly indicates a good flight overnight. Patricia 
Lindsay and I were fortunate to be able to observe some of this flight further 
east on the barrier beach of southwestern Suffolk County. Particularly abundant 
here were Slate-colored Juncos, Song Sparrows, Golden-crowned Kinglets, and 
Yellow-shafted Flickers; also included were two each of Phoebe, Brown Creeper, 
and Field Sparrow, and best of all was a Vesper Sparrow (singing!) from a 
little patch of Arctostaphylos moorland on Captree Island (nice looking spot, 
but not a chance of local breeding).

We walked around a little between Robert Moses SP golf course and Democrat 
Point; it was a good day because we learned a little bit more about our patch, 
watching how westward-moving Flickers, Golden-crowned Kinglets, and Myrtle 
Warblers behave at the puckerbrush-moorland ecotone.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-124500941-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-124500941-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Robert Paxton 
[r...@columbia.edu]
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2020 5:28 PM
To: NYSBIRDS
Subject: [nysbirds-l] spring arrivals: Eastern Phoebe

We found eleven Eastern Phoebes in about a half-mile (120th street to 110th 
street) at the  north end of Riverside Park, Manhattan, in about an hour (4 to 
5 p.m). We found none in a similar walk yesterday. No other spring migrants 
observed today.
  Bob Paxton and Sarah Plimpton
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[nysbirds-l] Block Island Presidents Day Count, 17 Feb 2020

[Shaibal Mitra]

We reached a milestone in our Block Island winter count project on Monday, with 
the 25th consecutive running of the Presidents Day Count. It hasn't been easy. 
Several PDCs were conducted under brutal conditions of wind, snow, or freezing 
rain, and some were re-scheduled because of appalling forecasts, imposing 
hardships on people traveling to participate. All of the people whose efforts 
have made this possible over the past quarter century have my gratitude and 
respect for contributing measurably to the humble discipline of purposeful 
birdwatching.

This year we had almost unbelievably pleasant conditions, with a calm, sunny 
morning and temps rising into the mid 40s. This was fortunate because only 
three participants were able to cover the island this year. I'd like to think 
that Bob Emerson, Doug Wilson, and I were not only experienced, but also 
capable and even relatively spry. In any case, with the benefit of favorable 
conditions, we managed 23.5 party-miles on foot and covered almost all of the 
special sites and habitat features on the island.

Two aspects of the results are quite striking. First, the species total of 85 
was well above the average of 79 and even closer to the max of 90 than to the 
average. No scarce-but-regular species was missed for the first time, so I 
interpret this as showing that coverage was adequate.

Second, overall bird abundance was strikingly low. The trend toward low species 
counts was quite general and included several groups of species, such as Canada 
Goose, freshwater ducks, seaducks, and gulls, whose generally large total 
counts tend to arise from checking one or a few prime sites (such as the ferry 
crossing, the harbor jetties, etc.) and therefore wouldn't seem to be 
vulnerable to lower than average effort. Flocking passerines such as Starling, 
Robin, and boreal finches were also scarce or absent. The 3,271 total 
individuals was decidedly the lowest ever, and a metric of landbirds per 
foot-mile that we've found useful over the years was just above the lowest 
ever, at 55, vs. the average of 84.

To investigate these patterns, I divided this year's counts by their respective 
longterm averages, and examined which species were 30% or more above average, 
30% or more below average, or within 30% of expectation. Strikingly, Of the 26 
most numerous species (averaging counts > 50), no fewer than 20 were 30% or 
more below average, compared to five near average, and just one 30% or more 
above average. The examples of abundant species that were well below average 
this year were drawn from a wide range of ecological guilds and included Canada 
Goose, several freshwater ducks, several seaducks, Herring and Great 
Black-backed Gulls, American Crow, and various other kinds of passerines. In 
contrast, four of the six generally numerous species that were found in normal 
or greater than normal numbers were classic thicket birds, whose counts depend 
on beating the puckerbrush over miles: Carolina Wren (143, 1.53 x avg); Song 
Sparrow (225, 1.25 x avg); Black-capped Chickadee (116, 0.95 x avg); and 
Northern Cardinal (61 (0.73 x avg). (In a different category but deserving 
mention were spectacular flocks of Razorbills, totaling 541, far above average.)

Consistent with the last trend were numerous normal or above-average counts of 
thicket bird species that, though regular, occur in relatively small numbers: 
Winter Wren (8, 2.99 x avg); Swamp Sparrow (12, 2.31 x avg); Towhee (11, 1.57 x 
avg); Fox Sparrow (6, 1.22 x average); and Gray Catbird (14, 1.02 x average). 
We also detected a number half-hardies that are difficult to find on Block 
Island in February, including Yellow-breasted Chat, Orange-crowned Warbler (2), 
Marsh Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet (2), White-crowned Sparrow, Golden-crowned 
Kinglet (3), Brown Thrasher, Savannah Sparrow (10), and Field Sparrow (8). The 
only target half-hardy that was unusually scarce--and indeed nearly missed for 
the first time in 25 PDCs--was Hermit Thrush (1, 0.18 x avg).

Evidence of the mildness of the the 2019-2020 is discernible not only in the 
cases discussed above, but in the persistence of species such as American 
Woodcock, American Bittern, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Great Blue Heron, and 
Virginia Rail. Another highlight not mentioned above was an American Kestrel, 
just the second PDC record.

The full results are available on request.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore


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[nysbirds-l] FW: Tundra Swans Negative report Watermill/Bridgehampton Suffolk Co.

[Shaibal Mitra]

From: Patricia Lindsay mailto:gelocheli...@gmail.com>>
Date: Sun, Feb 16, 2020 at 8:26 PM
Subject: Tundra Swans Negative report Watermill/Bridgehampton Suffolk Co.
To: mailto:nysbirds-l-requ...@cornell.edu>>


I spent the better part of the afternoon searching the various fields and ponds 
in the Watermill and Bridgehampton area for the elusive Tundra Swans with no 
luck. A flock of about 3000 Canada Geese on the Watermill Mill Pond later 
relocated to a field on Deerfield Ave. but I could not detect any swans among 
them either on the pond or in the field. This was the only sizeable flock of 
geese anywhere. I also checked Mecox Bay, as well as Sagaponack Pond. When I 
returned to one of the corn fields on Head of the Pond Road afterward, a hunter 
had set up a few decoy geese and a blind. I've witnessed far too much waterfowl 
carnage this season to stick around for the afternoon "sporting" session, which 
I can only hope resulted in disappointed hunters.

Most notable was a flock of 380 Canvasbacks on Mill Pond in Watermill. 
Otherwise, a flock of 120 Red-winged Blackbirds on Lopers Lane was a harbinger 
of spring,  and a flock of about 50 American Crows on Cooks Lane interacting 
and talking, plus scattered decent-sized flocks of White-throated Sparrows and 
Dark-eyed Juncos in various places, caught my attention.

There are so many fields (many inaccessible to view) and so many ponds from 
Hook Pond to Watermill, those swans could be anywhere. Or possibly gone 
already, with the spring weather already upon us.

Patricia Lindsay
Bay Shore

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RE: [nysbirds-l] (Over)Certainty in eBird reports (Brooklyn Painted Bunting info)

[Shaibal Mitra]

Doug's message is important and deserves careful attention from all 
contributors to citizen science. People should take care to be objective, 
accurate, and interpretable in their conclusions.

But I would also stress that this shouldn't mean giving up and omitting 
analysis altogether when, as is usually true, one doesn't feel 100% 
authoritative and certain. For instance, instead of checking boxes in the age 
and sex drop-down tables, or typing unqualified terms like "female" or 
"immature male" in the species comments, make an effort to describe the actual 
features you observed and to explain how you are interpreting them. This way a 
future user--or your future self--will be able to understand both what you 
actually saw and what you thought about it. This is what I mean by striving for 
interpretability in one's comments. Many new discoveries in the frontiers of 
identification have been achieved by the patient application of this method. In 
contrast, simply clicking a box in what amounts to a guess has almost zero 
value and can even confuse matters.

On a similar topic, I'm concerned about many of the breeding bird atlas codes 
I'm seeing in eBird checklists. Being asked 20 or 30 times per checklist to 
"Choose the highest code..." is appealing and addictive to many of us, but, 
like the age and sex tables, this kind of game-ification is destructive to 
understanding. Just as in assessing age and sex, assigning breeding codes 
depends on prior knowledge and accurate judgement. Common Goldeneyes perform 
courtship displays on Long Island in winter; Herring Gulls copulate miles away 
from their actual breeding sites; White-throated Sparrows sing day after day on 
their wintering grounds; etc. A bird is either going to breed in a given block 
or it isn't. If you have good reason to know that it will NOT, it is best to 
refrain from assigning any breeding code, even if the wording of the codes 
seems to allow for it.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-124371160-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-124371160-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Doug Gochfeld 
[fresha2...@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2020 8:16 PM
To: NYSBIRDS-L@cornell edu
Subject: [nysbirds-l] (Over)Certainty in eBird reports (Brooklyn Painted 
Bunting info)

While the specifics below directly pertain to one individual vagrant, the 
overall take home message should be valuable to anybody who tries to classify 
natural organisms.

This winter’s incursion of Painted Buntings into the region has brought delight 
to many New York birders. All three of the lingering Long Island individuals 
are green. The bunting that was found at Brooklyn Bridge Park by Heather Wolf 
in late December has been seen by hundreds of people at this point, and eBirded 
perhaps a couple of hundred times.

Of those reports, many have comments regarding the age or sex of the bird, and 
of these, a not-insignificant portion refer to the bird with certainty as a 
female and a an immature male, virtually none of which have any discussion as 
to why it is being classified as such.

In January, I E-Mailed Peter Pyle some photos, to see if he could make sense of 
it. He sent me a detailed analysis, which I have pasted as the bottom of this 
E-Mail, but the concise version is this: The bird IS an immature (hatched in 
2019). It CANNOT, in its current plumage, be visually identified to sex, and it 
seems most likely that it is a young male (as so many vagrants are) if he had 
to guess.

On that note, and given that eBird reports become a part of the permanent 
record, it would be great if the comments, when people look back years from 
now, were not just consistent, but accurate. Rather than having the very 
careful and earnest eBird moderators (a wholly volunteer and typically 
thankless job), in this case Sean and Shane, whom many of you know, reach out 
to every single person who writes “female” or "_ male" in the comments, it 
would be great if those reporting the bird going forward make comments that 
reflect only the highest level of certainty, rather than assumptions or 
guesswork. Also, if you have gone to see the bunting, please also check your 
prior observations to see if your comments can use some amending.


In the meantime, the young Painted Bunting does indeed continue at Brooklyn 
Bridge Park, seemingly becoming more acclimated to passers by as time goes on. 
Here are some photos and video of it from a couple of days ago, where it seems, 
though it may be my imagination, that there are some brighter green feathers 
and a bluish tinge starting to appear around the nape:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S64302675


Full text from Peter Pyle:
"So you are correct, this is a first-winter bird (SY now). The rectrices have 
been replaced during the preformative molt, so shape and condition of these are 
no longer useful for ageing. However, you can see molt limits in the remiges 
indicating an "eccentric" preforma

RE: [nysbirds-l] Townsend's Solitaire. East Hampton--Yes

[Shaibal Mitra]

Patricia Lindsay and I followed up on Bruce's discovery today. The area where 
he found the bird looks great, with some natural juniper habitat closely 
resembling the chosen sites of prior solitaires on LI, plus various ornamental 
conifers in nearby yards. This area was, however, almost completely birdless 
throughout our visit (about an hour, around mid-day). We split up and walked 
the nearby streets and it was hardly a surprise when Pat called me to let me 
know she had found it! The place where we observed the solitaire was a fair 
distance from the original site, in rather unremarkable-looking oak woods at 
the north end of Three Mile Harbor Drive.

https://flic.kr/p/2irF9sX

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-12436-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-12436-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Bruce Horwith 
[bruce.horw...@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 9, 2020 5:12 PM
To: nysbirds-l
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Townsend's Solitaire. East Hampton

There is a path off 3 Mile Harbor Drive (which is off Hands Creek Rd), halfway 
between Harvest Lane and Monument Lane. The bird was by itself, no robins or 
other birds present, as it gave good views perched on top of trees on either 
side of the road. Clear white eyering and buffy patches on wings. I took some 
photos that I hope to post, once I figure out how to upload them from the 
camera I borrowed.


Bruce Horwith
16 Salt Marsh Path
East Hampton, NY 11937
(631) 599-0040 cell phone
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[nysbirds-l] Southern Nassau County CBC--Preliminary Results

[Shaibal Mitra]

Saturday 28 December 2019 was a fine day for the 80th iteration of the Southern 
Nassau County CBC, with mild temperatures, light winds, and no precipitation. 
The total of 135 species recorded on count day was above our recent average of 
about 130. This count has an impressive resume of genuine rarities discovered 
on count-day, and our participants added to this legacy twice again this year: 
a Painted Bunting found near the Gatsby restaurant at Jones Beach by Pete 
Morris and Taylor Sturm, and a Townsend's Warbler found at the Florence Avenue 
Beach, along the bay shore in Massapequa, by John Gluth. By my calculations, 
the overall count probably missed three or four species that would otherwise 
have been found, as a result of effort re-directed to admiring these little 
green birds.

As usual, there were many other notable species as well:

Blue-winged Teal at Bellmore Mill Pond
Red-necked Grebe from Jones Beach
Clapper Rail from the boat
Common Gallinule at Bellmore Mill Pond
12 Red Knots at Point Lookout
36 Purple Sandpipers at and westward from Point Lookout
99 Razorbills along the oceanfront
Black-headed Gull at Jones Beach West End
American Bittern at Tobay
2 Barn Owls somewhere near water of some kind
Short-eared Owl also, curiously, somewhere near water of some kind
Northern Saw-whet Owl somewhere
6 Eastern Phoebes at various places in Jones Beach, Hempstead Lake, and Mitchell
House Wren in Massapequa
3 Marsh Wrens from Jones Beach and the boat
a count-week Grasshopper Sparrow at Point Lookout
3 Eastern Meadowlarks in the Five Towns
Nashville Warbler in Baldwin
3 Orange-crowned Warblers from Jones Beach, Tobay, and the Five Towns
Common Yellowthroat in the Five Towns
Palm Warbler at Jones Beach

As often is the case on good-weather days, high counts were recorded for many 
species: 
23 Cooper's Hawk
40 Red-tailed Hawk
213 Blue Jay
130 Carolina Wren
24 Gray Catbird
190 Northern Mockingbird
17 Hermit Thrush
660 Song Sparrow
66 Swamp Sparrow
288 Boat-tailed Grackle (this impressive number being the remainder after 
careful excision of potential duplicate flocks)
16 Common Ravens (again, after adjustment for possible duplications; meanwhile, 
Bald Eagle has aged out of being notable!)
7 Chipping Sparrows

Only two species were recorded in unusually low numbers:
25 Snow Bunting
2573 Herring Gull 

And only three more or less regular species were missed:
Purple Finch
Lapland Longspur
Rusty Blackbird

--though Snowy Owl should be cued here, too, given their documented presence 
(and torment) within the circle, both before and right after the CBC.

There are many lessons to be learned from these data, but I'd like to take this 
opportunity to point attention to just two questions. First, it is not by 
chance that all three of our rarest species (Grasshopper Sparrow, Painted 
Bunting, and Townsend's Warbler) have shown distinct waves of occurrence in the 
Northeast this season. Those who dismiss vagrancy as a passive consequence of 
weather systems ought to ponder why so many other species, present in the same 
source regions and experiencing the same weather patterns, have NOT been lining 
up along our shores lately, as these species have.

But perhaps even more mysterious is the great Chipping Sparrow flood of 2019. 
Although our tally of 7 was admittedly smaller than the rounding errors 
suffered by Hugh McGuinness et al. in Accabonnac, it is still a very large 
number for urban western Long Island. And all of the counts I know of or 
participated in this season, from southern New England to Long Island, 
encountered this species in much higher than usual numbers--close to triple 
digits in some cases. There are a lot of parallels between Chipping Sparrow and 
White-crowned Sparrow: both are good CBC species at our latitude, but unlike 
other half-hardies, both show a preference for inland and rural settings vs. 
coastal/urban migrant traps. And this December's Chipping Sparrow phenomenon 
reminds me a lot of last year's large numbers of White-crowned Sparrows on all 
the CBCs. How does this happen?

Many thanks to our 90+ participants and to Otto's Freeport for hosting our 
compilation.

Happy New Year and the best of birding in 2020!
Shai Mitra & Patricia Lindsay
Bay Shore
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[nysbirds-l] Alcid Flight Robert Moses SP, Suffolk

[Shaibal Mitra]

On yesterday's (15 Dec 2019) Captree Christmas Bird Count, observers at Robert 
Moses SP enjoyed a spectacular flight of Razorbills, within which we also 
recorded a Thick-billed Murre and an extremely-rare-from-shore Common Murre.

The east to west flow of flocks of Razorbills was immediately obvious when we 
began at 7:00, and even a few minutes of additional viewing prior to that time 
would have produced hundreds of additional birds. The rate of passage 
diminished abruptly around 7:30, and only a few dozen were noted after 8:00. 
The total count of Razorbills was 637, a number exceeded at this site only once 
before, on last year's CBC. Last December, however, there had been prior 
reports of exceptional numbers of Razorbills on the move to the north and east 
of us. In contrast, the scale of yesterday's flight came as a surprise to us, 
especially given the 20 mph wind out of the west, a bearing that is generally 
unfavorable for local seawatches.

The rarity of the two murre species in this context deserves emphasis. 
Thick-billed Murre is a rare and irregular winter visitor to Long Island, 
occurring almost exclusively at particular sites with rocky substrates, 
especially the Montauk peninsula and Shinnecock Inlet. Common Murre is regular 
on Long Island's offshore waters, often in scores or even hundreds in recent 
years, but is still exceptionally rare from land. In forty years of birding the 
Rhode Island/Long Island coast I had seen this species from land only once 
before, at Shinnecock Inlet last winter. During last year's mega flight of 
Razorbills, and also during the one a few years before that, I remember 
repeatedly cautioning fellow observers that heavy movements of one species do 
not necessarily imply an increased likelihood of seeing other related but rare 
species. Then it happened to me. To add both of these species to my most 
intensively birded patch on the same morning was a stunning highlight and an 
example of how rewarding CBC-style effort can be.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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[nysbirds-l] A Late White-eyed Vireo on LI and Thoughts on the Nov-Dec Vagrant Season

[Shaibal Mitra]

As the late fall vagrant season unfolds once again, rarity hunters are 
excitedly debating precisely where and when to look for them. My own 
contribution in this department was a very modest 40-minute walk yesterday 
afternoon in Gardiner County Park, Bay Shore, Suffolk County.

The most unusual bird I found was a White-eyed Vireo, which I thought was 
interesting to find at this site, at this date. Gardiner CP is a known breeding 
station for this declining and local breeder on LI, so the present record bears 
on the question of whether the unusual date records of common species in 
Nov-Dec are analogous to the co-occurring records of extralimital species 
(i.e., originating recently from distant sites), or whether they represent 
local individuals lingering from earlier in the year. 

Many November records of WEVI on LI are known to occur via long-distance 
dispersal, like vagrants, because they often occur in clusters at outer coastal 
vagrant traps, in association with other unusual species, all of which have 
been demonstrably absent in prior weeks (e.g., 
https://ebird.org/checklist/S40357090; https://ebird.org/checklist/S40348840; 
https://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/msg22781.html)

A record like the present one could be interpreted either way, and if a 
"vagrant," would be especially interesting as implying a specific preference 
for this site by WEVI.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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[nysbirds-l] Thayer's Gull, Argyle Lake, Suffolk County, LI

[Shaibal Mitra]

This afternoon, Patricia Lindsay and I identified a juvenile Thayer's Gull at 
Argyle Lake in Babylon village, southwestern Suffolk County, Long Island.

This hatching-year Larus retained full juvenile plumage. At this date this is 
expected for Thayer's and Iceland Gulls, not unusual in Lesser Black-backed 
Gulls, but would be extremely rare in smithsonianus Herring Gulls, all of which 
we saw today had replaced their juvenal scaps and mantle feathers with 
formative feathers. 

The focal bird was smaller, smaller-billed, and rounder-headed than 
smithsonianus. The bill was also darker than on any same-aged Herring Gull seen 
today, generally appearing all black (but showing subtly paler base on good, 
close looks). The folded wingtip and tail appeared black, the dorsal-aspect 
primaries tipped with fine, creamy chevrons. The blackness of these feathers 
was far beyond any dark-end kumlieni Iceland Gull in my experience. In addition 
to the points mentioned above regarding structure, molt, and bill color, this 
bird differed from smithsonianus Herring Gull in showing a pale, Iceland 
Gull-like underwing pattern. This was clearly visible on my best scope views of 
the undersides of the wingtips when perched, and in excellent binocular views 
in flight. Unfortunately, the bird changed position on the rooftop immediately 
after my initial studies of it and before I began photographing it. Thus, the 
photos show only a hint of the extensively pale inner webs of the primaries, 
and incomplete views of the retained juvenile dorsum. Both of these things were 
seen previously, however, and conformed to the descriptions above.

All photos were taken 1:49-1:52 EST, at which point all of the gulls in the 
area went up due to a bread-scattering event on the other side of the lake. I 
had great views of the bird in perfect light as it flew east to west the north 
of us, but Pat was not on it with the Lumix when it flew, so no flight shots. 
We lost track of it as the flocks milled around over the lake and could not 
re-find it.

Photos can be seen here:

https://flic.kr/p/2hPTG9s

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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RE: [nysbirds-l] Golden-crowned Sparrow Pics and Age

[Shaibal Mitra]

Hi Steve and all,

In terms of field-observable appearance, my thought was that it was a 
hatching-year bird based on (1) the vagueness and narrowness of the blackish 
arc extending from the forecrown back along the lateral crown; and (2) the 
relatively large amount of yellow bleeding down below the arc, into the front 
of the supercilium. A lot of winter birds out west show much broader, more 
solidly black frontal arcs and little or no yellow below the arc. On the LI 
bird, the dark arc often looked to me like a vague, discontinuous series of 
small dark flecks. I would think an adult would show more black.

When I get a chance I'll check lots of photos for hints regarding molt limits, 
the shapes of rectrix tips, etc.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-124141213-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-124141213-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Steve Walter 
[swalte...@verizon.net]
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2019 4:11 PM
To: NYSBIRDS
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Golden-crowned Sparrow Pics and Age

I’ve posted a couple of pictures at my web site http://stevewalternature.com/ . 
Not being on top of Golden-crowned Sparrow plumages, I assumed while I was 
there that it’s a first winter (immature) bird. It is what you expect in these 
situations. Now having had a chance to look at references and pictures, I’m not 
so sure about that. This bird seems brighter on the crown and above the eye 
than many immatures. which are often rather plain faced with limited yellow. 
But it is noted that there’s enough variability in adults and immatures that 
they can’t always be aged. This individual looks very similar to the one in 
figure 48.3 in “Sparrows … The Photographic Guide”, which is left undetermined 
to age.  You can look it up for yourself, if you care about that sort of thing.

Steve Walter
Bayside, NY
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FW: [nysbirds-l] Lined Seedeater, Queens

[Shaibal Mitra]

Thanks, Nathan.

I had only heard via word of mouth about the sighting on 7 Sep and then seen 
the photo from a few days ago.

The lack of excitement makes sense in retrospect, given that some of the people 
in the know were aware of the band. 

The rest of us had to wonder whether anybody had done due diligence (as turned 
out to be true) or whether it was another case of not very well informed 
indifference toward a species with genuine potential for vagrancy. To me this 
highlights the importance of the listserv for cases like this that require 
analysis and explanation. 

I'm gonna let it hang out there on the Hot 100 for a while, as my latest 
lifebird on eBird, to amuse the guilty and punish the innocent!

Shai

From: bounce-124002490-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-124002490-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of nathan o'reilly 
[natro...@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 8, 2019 6:22 PM
To: Robert Lewis; Long Island Birding .
Cc: birds
Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Lined Seedeater, Queens

On the eBird report from Sept 7 you can see a band on the leg.

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S59576345
[https://download.ams.birds.cornell.edu/api/v1/asset/175971541/1200]<https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S59576345>

eBird Checklist - 7 Sep 2019 - Charles Memorial Park - 28 
species<https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S59576345>
Hiding a checklist will exclude the taxa on it from all forms of eBird output 
that show a location (including bar charts, maps, and arrival/departure 
tables), but the observation will still be accessible to you, and will appear 
on your lists.
ebird.org




Sent from Outlook<http://aka.ms/weboutlook>


From: bounce-124002397-79824...@list.cornell.edu 
 on behalf of Long Island Birding . 

Sent: Tuesday, October 8, 2019 5:27 PM
To: Robert Lewis 
Cc: birds 
Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Lined Seedeater, Queens

Hello Bob,
Just of note these birds are widely available for purchase online and maybe 
even in local pet stores. I think many feel that it was probably an escapee 
rather than the more unlikely scenario of a vagrant, but who knows?

https://leesexoticbirds.com/prices/

http://www.mdexoticbirds.net/Birds.html?1015.PCI=100262

Mike Z.

On Tue, Oct 8, 2019, 5:18 PM Robert Lewis 
mailto:rfer...@yahoo.com>> wrote:
HUH?? This has been present since September 7??  And not a single post of that 
fact to this server before?  Or did I miss it?

Thank you Shai.

Bob Lewis
Sleepy Hollow NY


On Tuesday, October 8, 2019, 4:41:42 PM EDT, Shaibal Mitra 
mailto:shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu>> wrote:


We birders are good at distinguishing between the improbable (e.g., seeing a 
Lined Seedeater in New York) and the imponderable (e.g., deliberately driving 
the Belt Parkway on a morning when one had been granted a reprieve from doing 
so). With a chance at the former as an inducement for the enduring the latter, 
I visited the Charles Memorial Park this morning, on the north shore of Jamaica 
Bay, directly north of the parking area where we stage for visits to the north 
end of the East Pond.

The male Lined Seedeater was skulky but still present, continuing from at least 
7 Sep:

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S60461352

I'm not sure why this bird has not garnered more attention within the birding 
community. Lined Seedeater is a trans-equatorial austral migrant and a 
plausible candidate for natural vagrancy to North America. There is a specimen 
from the Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire, from 8 August 1935 (MCZ), and records 
of vagrants north of the regular northern South American austral winter (our 
summer) range from Costa Rica, and from Guadeloupe--the latter from 6-7 Sep 
2017, perhaps not coincidentally almost exactly the date the present bird was 
found this year.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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[nysbirds-l] Lined Seedeater, Queens

[Shaibal Mitra]

We birders are good at distinguishing between the improbable (e.g., seeing a 
Lined Seedeater in New York) and the imponderable (e.g., deliberately driving 
the Belt Parkway on a morning when one had been granted a reprieve from doing 
so). With a chance at the former as an inducement for the enduring the latter, 
I visited the Charles Memorial Park this morning, on the north shore of Jamaica 
Bay, directly north of the parking area where we stage for visits to the north 
end of the East Pond.

The male Lined Seedeater was skulky but still present, continuing from at least 
7 Sep:

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S60461352

I'm not sure why this bird has not garnered more attention within the birding 
community. Lined Seedeater is a trans-equatorial austral migrant and a 
plausible candidate for natural vagrancy to North America. There is a specimen 
from the Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire, from 8 August 1935 (MCZ), and records 
of vagrants north of the regular northern South American austral winter (our 
summer) range from Costa Rica, and from Guadeloupe--the latter from 6-7 Sep 
2017, perhaps not coincidentally almost exactly the date the present bird was 
found this year.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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[nysbirds-l] Long Island Morning Flight

[Shaibal Mitra]

The morning flight on coastal Long Island is very heavy and diverse today, as 
viewed with Doug Gochfeld, Shane Blodgett and others at Coney Island Creek 
Park, Kings, and by Michael McBrien at Robert Moses SP, Suffolk. I would expect 
it to continue for another hour and a half or so at outer beach sites, with 
large numbers of migrants on the ground everywhere also. Check eBird for 
details.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore (currently running to class on Staten Island)
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Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: News Alert: North America has lost 29% of its birds since 1970, study finds. Experts blame habitat loss, pesticides, light pollution and cats.

[Shaibal Mitra]

Hi Gus,

I really think it's just an artifact of the way the figure was made, and not 
something with a complicated biological explanation. To me it looks like a 
simple function that illustrates the entire estimated decline from 10 to 7, as 
though the current population size was the end point. In other words, the 
graphic looks like the exponential loss of 3 billion birds, starting with all 
of the 3 billion birds that used to exist, to the zero of those birds that 
remain today.

Shai
___
From: Gus Keri [gusk...@zoho.com]
Sent: Sunday, September 22, 2019 12:35 PM
To: Shaibal Mitra
Cc: NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu)
Subject: RE: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: News Alert: North America has lost 29% of its 
birds since 1970, study finds. Experts blame habitat loss, pesticides, light 
pollution and cats.

Hi Shaibal,

I took into consideration the possibility of exponential  decline but it didn't 
look like that.
If you calculate the decline in relation to the absolute number of birds at the 
beginning of each decade, the difference is more remarkable.
Here is the percentage of decline for each decade alone:
By the end of the 70s: 12%
By the end of the 80s: 9%
By the end of the 90s: 7%
BY the end if the 2000s: 4%
By now: 1-2%

I don't know if birds are finding a way to adjust with all the environmental 
changes that are taking place, or there are other factors involved.




Sent using Zoho Mail


  On Sun, 22 Sep 2019 12:01:35 -0400 Shaibal Mitra 
 wrote 
 > Hi Gus and all,
 >
 > The curve in the link has the shape characteristic of exponential decline at 
 > a constant rate. It has the properties you describe, with the amount of 
 > absolute loss diminishing in the recent years, because the population itself 
 > is getting smaller all the time. I suspect that this graphic is not to be 
 > taken literally but instead is a simple, fitted function meant to express 
 > the overall rate of loss that was estimated over these decades.
 >
 > Best,
 > Shai
 > 
 > From: bounce-123944861-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
 > [bounce-123944861-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Gus Keri 
 > [gusk...@zoho.com]
 > Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2019 6:57 PM
 > To: Anne Swaim
 > Cc: NYSBIRDS-L-for posts posts; Birding alert, ebirdsNYC, Birding alert
 > Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: News Alert: North America has lost 29% of its 
 > birds since 1970, study finds. Experts blame habitat loss, pesticides, light 
 > pollution and cats.
 >
 > https://www.allaboutbirds.org/vanishing-1-in-4-birds-gone/
 >
 > The shape of the curve on the graphic in the above article is very 
 > intriguing to me. It starts with a steep decline in the first couple of 
 > decades and plateaued toward the last few years.
 > The curve suggests that more than 75% of birds losses happened in the first 
 > 25 years (betwween 1970 and 1995) and less than 25% of the losses took place 
 > in the last 25 years(from 1995 to present).
 > The fact that habitat loss, climate changes and other adverse environmental 
 > changes are worse in the last 25 years compared to the previous period 
 > suggests other factors are at play to slow down the decline of the total 
 > population.
 > Does anyone have any explanation for this contradiction?
 >
 > Sent using Zoho Mail
 >
 >
 >   On Fri, 20 Sep 2019 07:18:43 -0400 Anne Swaim  
 > wrote 
 >  > The unformatted PDF version of the study is now openly linked on Cornell 
 > Lab's website 
 > here:https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/DECLINE-OF-NORTH-AMERICAN-AVIFAUNA-SCIENCE-2019.pdfand
 >  also linked from accompanying Living Birds article 
 > here:https://www.allaboutbirds.org/vanishing-1-in-4-birds-gone/
 >  >
 >  > Anne SwaimSaw Mill River Audubonwww.sawmillriveraudubon.org
 >  >
 >  >
 >  >
 >  > On Thu, Sep 19, 2019 at 9:29 PM Anne Swaim  wrote:
 >  > Further on this topic: someone just passed along a PDF of full text of 
 > the study.
 >  > Reply off list, if a copy would be of interest.
 >  > Anne SwaimSaw Mill River Audubonwww.sawmillriveraudubon.org
 >  >
 >  >
 >  >  --  NYSbirds-L 
 > List Info:   Welcome and Basics  
 > Rules and Information
 >Subscribe, Configuration and Leave  
 > Archives:   The Mail Archive 
 >Surfbirds   
 > ABA Please submit your observations to 
 > eBird!  

RE: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: News Alert: North America has lost 29% of its birds since 1970, study finds. Experts blame habitat loss, pesticides, light pollution and cats.

[Shaibal Mitra]

Hi Gus and all,

The curve in the link has the shape characteristic of exponential decline at a 
constant rate. It has the properties you describe, with the amount of absolute 
loss diminishing in the recent years, because the population itself is getting 
smaller all the time. I suspect that this graphic is not to be taken literally 
but instead is a simple, fitted function meant to express the overall rate of 
loss that was estimated over these decades.

Best,
Shai

From: bounce-123944861-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-123944861-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Gus Keri 
[gusk...@zoho.com]
Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2019 6:57 PM
To: Anne Swaim
Cc: NYSBIRDS-L-for posts posts; Birding alert, ebirdsNYC, Birding alert
Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: News Alert: North America has lost 29% of its 
birds since 1970, study finds. Experts blame habitat loss, pesticides, light 
pollution and cats.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/vanishing-1-in-4-birds-gone/

The shape of the curve on the graphic in the above article is very intriguing 
to me. It starts with a steep decline in the first couple of decades and 
plateaued toward the last few years.
The curve suggests that more than 75% of birds losses happened in the first 25 
years (betwween 1970 and 1995) and less than 25% of the losses took place in 
the last 25 years(from 1995 to present).
The fact that habitat loss, climate changes and other adverse environmental 
changes are worse in the last 25 years compared to the previous period suggests 
other factors are at play to slow down the decline of the total population.
Does anyone have any explanation for this contradiction?

Sent using Zoho Mail


  On Fri, 20 Sep 2019 07:18:43 -0400 Anne Swaim  wrote 

 > The unformatted PDF version of the study is now openly linked on Cornell 
 > Lab's website 
 > here:https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/DECLINE-OF-NORTH-AMERICAN-AVIFAUNA-SCIENCE-2019.pdfand
 >  also linked from accompanying Living Birds article 
 > here:https://www.allaboutbirds.org/vanishing-1-in-4-birds-gone/
 >
 > Anne SwaimSaw Mill River Audubonwww.sawmillriveraudubon.org
 >
 >
 >
 > On Thu, Sep 19, 2019 at 9:29 PM Anne Swaim  wrote:
 > Further on this topic: someone just passed along a PDF of full text of the 
 > study.
 > Reply off list, if a copy would be of interest.
 > Anne SwaimSaw Mill River Audubonwww.sawmillriveraudubon.org
 >
 >
 >  --  NYSbirds-L List 
 > Info:   Welcome and Basics   
 >Rules and Information   
 > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave  
 > Archives:   The Mail Archive 
 >Surfbirds   
 > ABA Please submit your observations to 
 > eBird!   --


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RE:[nysbirds-l] Miriam Levine, 1923-2019

[Shaibal Mitra]

Hi everyone,

We just learned that the service for Mickey will be tomorrow at 11:00, at 175 
North Long Beach Road, Rockville Centre. 

I know that this is very late notice, but we wanted to let people know.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: Shaibal Mitra
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2019 7:25 PM
To: NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu)
Subject: Miriam Levine, 1923-2019

Dear New York Birders,

We learned today that Miriam Levine passed away yesterday, peacefully at home.

For more than 70 years, Mickey was an sharp observer of birders, scoring their 
strengths and flaws with an inimitable wit. Her husband Manny forged a 
prominent role in the New York birding community, starting young before World 
War II, then taking an active role in Long Island birding after his return from 
service and during the post-war blossoming of birding culture.

Generations of birders have known Mickey. An accomplished sculptress, she 
fashioned many memorable pieces in many media. Her bronze Kingbird sculptures 
have for decades been a ceremonial means of honoring the presidents of the 
Federation of New York State Bird Clubs and the New York State Ornithological 
Association. Her incisive sociological observations, covering more than a half 
century of meetings of the Linnaean Society of New York, and the inception of 
world birding, could fill volumes. Often related to the Baldwin team during 
afternoon breaks from the Southern Nassau County CBC for cocktails at the 
Levine home, her stories surely helped to shape our views of the world.

We celebrated Mickey's 96th birthday with her just last week, at that home, 
with her aide Anna and longtime friend Joan Quinlan. We are saddened at losing 
her; there are so many things we will never learn, or never again be coaxed 
into remembering--dependent now forever on our own fragile memories.

Her life was a great one, and she shared so much with so many of us.

Shai Mitra & Patricia Lindsay
Bay Shore

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RE: [nysbirds-l] Hurricane Dorian

[Shaibal Mitra]

Dear Peter,

It's amazing to hear these first-hand accounts of your experiences in past 
storms! And yes, access could be an issue for any storm that directly affects 
our area. But a major reason why I posted these summaries was to show people 
with less experience the birding potential of storms, like David, Fran, and 
Ernesto, that pass inland well to the west of us and pose less of a direct 
weather challenge to us. I particularly recall Ernesto, which after seemingly 
immense hype regarding direct threats to Long Island, made landfall so far 
south and west that birders mainly ignored him. I vividly recall driving over 
the bridges to the beach in the morning and seeing Great South Bay's glassy, 
mirror-like surface--"it's a mill pond!" I exclaimed to Pat, using indelicate 
expressions as well. Even so, we had great birds that morning. Storms like 
dorian that churn past to the south cause much more trouble and produce far 
fewer rarities for us than do storms like David.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: Peter Post [pwp...@nyc.rr.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 4, 2019 12:39 AM
To: Shaibal Mitra
Cc: NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu)
Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Hurricane Dorian

All well and good, but the problem nowadays is access, access, access! Or I 
should say lack of access!

I spent most of the Sept. 7th, 1979, during hurricane David, at Robert Mosses 
SP. Every 10 or 15 minutes a small flock of Sooty Terns would fly by with an 
occasional Bridled. By the end of the day I totaled 90 Sooty and 3 Bridled. 
Nowadays that beach is closed during hurricanes!

On Sept. 27, 1985, during hurricane Gloria, the Jones Beach strip was open in 
the morning but closed in the afternoon unless you could prove you had a house 
on the strip. And it's been closed during hurricanes ever since. The 
authorities I am told are afraid of looting. As a result I missed the 3,000 
Cape May warblers that day, but I was able to get out to Pt. Lookout where a 
Northern Phalarope was spinning in a puddle in the parking lot. And where I had 
my first intermedius Lesser Black-backed Gull for NY.

During hurricane Irene, August, 27, 2011, I went to Central Park in the morning 
hoping to see some storm blown birds. I ignored the signs that the park was 
closed. The City is afraid that they will be sued if a branch or tree hits or 
kills someone. There was nothing of interest on the Great Lawn and the 
reservoir was covered in thick flog. I passed several police who ignored me but 
I ran into the parks Director of Operations, whom I knew, and who tried to 
evict me. Later that afternoon I tried my luck at Riverside Park, where I ran 
into Dale Dancis and was later joined  by Ardith Bondi. I added both Sooty and 
Bridled Terns, Wilson's and Leach's Storm-Petrels, Royal Tern, and White-tailed 
Tropicbird to my NY County list. Ardith had a large dark swift which I couldn't 
get on. Unfortunate, because there was a Black Swift seen at Cape May that day! 
(All of this was written up in the Linnaean Newsletter). The following year, 
during hurricane Sandy, one couldn't get near the Hudson River. They 
authorities threatened us with arrest if we didn't leave. We had to hide as 
best we could. But before being kicked out I added Oystercatcher and Black 
Scoter to my NY Co., list.

If it isn't the closing of areas it's the downing of trees/power lines. During 
one hurricane years ago I got as far as Bridgehampton. Downed tress blocked my 
way from going any further east or to the beaches. When I tried going back home 
a recently downed tree blocked my return. I wound up spending the afternoon in 
the Bridgehampton High School which had been setup as a shelter. Free coffee 
and donuts.Tony Lauro and Paul Buckley managed to make it to Montauk Pt., but 
had to use a chainsaw to get there.

Peter Post



On Sep 3, 2019, at 8:57 PM, Shaibal Mitra wrote:

> The earliest models for Dorian’s track indicated a likelihood that the storm 
> would track almost due north and pass to the west of Long Island—or at least 
> parts of Long Island. This is the scenario that is likely to produce tropical 
> terns and other Gulf Stream birds onshore on Long Island. With many people 
> talking about Dorian and buzzing over the potential for storm birds, I’ve 
> pulled out maps and bird data for several storms that passed west of or 
> across Long Island near this date: David (1979), Fran (1996), Floyd (1999), 
> Ernesto (2006), and Irene (2011)—all of these were productive for storm birds.
>
> For better or worse, at this point, it appears that Dorian will almost 
> certainly whip out to sea to the south and east of us, as so many tropical 
> systems do. Storms of this sort often interrupt the trans-oceanic migrations 
> of species that would otherwise pass over us (various shorebirds, jaegers, 
> Black Tern, etc.), but

[nysbirds-l] Hurricane Dorian

[Shaibal Mitra]

The earliest models for Dorian’s track indicated a likelihood that the storm 
would track almost due north and pass to the west of Long Island—or at least 
parts of Long Island. This is the scenario that is likely to produce tropical 
terns and other Gulf Stream birds onshore on Long Island. With many people 
talking about Dorian and buzzing over the potential for storm birds, I’ve 
pulled out maps and bird data for several storms that passed west of or across 
Long Island near this date: David (1979), Fran (1996), Floyd (1999), Ernesto 
(2006), and Irene (2011)—all of these were productive for storm birds.

For better or worse, at this point, it appears that Dorian will almost 
certainly whip out to sea to the south and east of us, as so many tropical 
systems do. Storms of this sort often interrupt the trans-oceanic migrations of 
species that would otherwise pass over us (various shorebirds, jaegers, Black 
Tern, etc.), but they do not bring tropical terns, etc.

(Note: my obvious desire to see storm birds has NO influence on the weather and 
is not responsible for any harm or good wrought by any storm; the storm will do 
what it does, and we may simply wish to be prepared for the ornithological as 
well as other consequences).

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore


1979 Major Hurricane David

https://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/atlantic/1979/Major-Hurricane-David

>From Richard L. Ferren, summarizing effects in Rhode Island: “A minimum of 62 
>Sooty Terns, at least five Bridled Terns, and a Brown Noddy passed Point 
>Judith heading northeastward in the very late afternoon hours, with additional 
>Sooties audibly passing the point after dark. Other Sooties were found dead at 
>Napatree Point and seen exhausted inland at Kingston, while eight 
>oystercatchers appeared at Napatree. More Sandwich Terns were seen the next 
>day.  Five Royal,  16 Black,  and one Gull-billed Tern, and three Black 
>Skimmers were also seen. A flock of 68 Red and six Red-necked Phalaropes at 
>Galilee, and a Red-necked Phalarope and seven Black Terns were seen inland at 
>Richmond the day of the storm; eight oystercatchers at Napatree the day after 
>was then a large number. A final total of seven Sandwich Terns was a maximum 
>count for the state at the time.”


1996 Major Hurricane Fran

https://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/atlantic/1996/Major-Hurricane-Fran

morning: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S20370719
morning: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S20370663
evening: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S20467354
next day: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S20467579


1999 Major Hurricane Floyd

https://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/atlantic/1999/Major-Hurricane-Floyd

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S24442955
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27002826


2006 Hurricane Ernesto

https://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/atlantic/2006/Hurricane-Ernesto

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S24420867


2011 Hurricane Irene

https://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/atlantic/2011/Hurricane-Irene

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S8737686
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S8737724
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S8737900
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S8737940


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[nysbirds-l] Miriam Levine, 1923-2019

[Shaibal Mitra]

Dear New York Birders,

We learned today that Miriam Levine passed away yesterday, peacefully at home.

For more than 70 years, Mickey was an sharp observer of birders, scoring their 
strengths and flaws with an inimitable wit. Her husband Manny forged a 
prominent role in the New York birding community, starting young before World 
War II, then taking an active role in Long Island birding after his return from 
service and during the post-war blossoming of birding culture.

Generations of birders have known Mickey. An accomplished sculptress, she 
fashioned many memorable pieces in many media. Her bronze Kingbird sculptures 
have for decades been a ceremonial means of honoring the presidents of the 
Federation of New York State Bird Clubs and the New York State Ornithological 
Association. Her incisive sociological observations, covering more than a half 
century of meetings of the Linnaean Society of New York, and the inception of 
world birding, could fill volumes. Often related to the Baldwin team during 
afternoon breaks from the Southern Nassau County CBC for cocktails at the 
Levine home, her stories surely helped to shape our views of the world.

We celebrated Mickey's 96th birthday with her just last week, at that home, 
with her aide Anna and longtime friend Joan Quinlan. We are saddened at losing 
her; there are so many things we will never learn, or never again be coaxed 
into remembering--dependent now forever on our own fragile memories.

Her life was a great one, and she shared so much with so many of us.

Shai Mitra & Patricia Lindsay
Bay Shore

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[nysbirds-l] Brown Booby+ Robert Moses SP, Suffolk County

[Shaibal Mitra]

Around 9:00 this morning an adult Brown Booby flew east to west past Robert 
Moses SP, parking field 2. Its uniformly dark brown upperparts, head, and upper 
breast were discernible, as was the sharp contrast between the last and the 
white belly and underwing linings. Moreover, its flight style differed markedly 
from that of Northern Gannet, of which several were also present, including 
birds flying on the same bearing in relation to the northeasterly winds. 
Specifically, its wingbeats were more rapid, powerful, and continuous than 
those of a gannet, and the overall impression was of a significantly smaller 
bird. Conversely, its very long, slim wings, long and pointed neck and head 
projection, and long tail were all clearly those of a sulid and not a 
shearwater, petrel, jaeger, or gull. The bird was quite distant, and I was 
troubled that I was unable to make out the bill color. This might have been 
attributable to the bill having a dull pale color that blended in with the tone 
of the background water and sky.

This was the last bird I saw during a generally slow seawatch, because I quit 
after it passed and raced around to the other side of the Fire Island Inlet, on 
the chance that the booby might enter and fly past or perch. Earlier, over the 
course of an hour I saw a close Manx Shearwater, an adult-like Parasitic Jaeger 
(w to e), and at least five Northern Gannets, but very little else. These 
observations, together with those yesterday morning of Manx Shearwater at Sagg 
Main Beach and Cory's Shearwaters there and off Shinnecock Inlet, suggest an 
improvement over the past several weeks' dismal seawatching conditions--perhaps 
attributable to the recent northeasterly winds. We also saw Humpback Whales and 
Bottlenose Dolphins at a couple of sites yesterday.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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[nysbirds-l] Birding the Barrier Beach

[Shaibal Mitra]

Birding the Long Island barrier beach this morning was poignant for Pat and me. 
Having just lost a singular mentor, Tony Lauro, we were especially tuned in to 
appreciating the company of many newer friends, including some just now 
learning the barrier beach magic, with us.

We anticipated a flight this morning based on simple experience—it’s late 
August, and a cold front had finally broken a prolonged sultry period of hot, 
humid weather with southwesterly winds. All the radar data and meteorological 
minutiae acknowledged, we knew anyway that birds would be moving, and so it was.

If anything, the flight was slower than we had hoped—especially in terms of 
nocturnal, Neotropical migrants. Part of the problem was the premature swing to 
northeast from northwest winds—seemingly the prevalent pattern after cold 
fronts in recent years—which disrupts the usual east to west morning flight 
dynamic for many species.

But there were, as always, things to be learned. Twenty-four (or more) 
Blue-gray Gnatcatchers launching their tiny selves from east to west with 
personality were far more than I’ve ever seen here in a day, but warblers and 
other Neotropicals were fewer than expected. The swallows, counted in good 
numbers yesterday, continued pressing westward, and these took on a good 
portion of the attention of the assembled talent (nine people at the Field 2 
toll booths).

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S59226701

I couldn’t help but remember the immense flight that led Pat and me to discover 
our now go-to vantage near the Field 2 toll booths, back on 10 May 2002. On 
that morning, overwhelmed by a Tadoussacian blitz of Neotropicals, we hunted 
around until we found the sweet spot for surveying the east to west flux. In 
those early days of digital connectivity, we managed to get Manny Levine down 
to Jones Beach and Joan Quinlan and Tony Lauro to join us at the tolls.

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S22010106

As it happened, Joan was with us on Thursday night, with Manny’s widow Mickey, 
in Baldwin, celebrating Mickey's 96th birthday, when we learned of Tony’s 
passing. The point is, having taught us how to bird the barrier beach, Tony 
went on to learn from us, too, and the process continues.

Besides the Gnatscratchers, our highlights this morning were a very impressive 
tally of 39 Cliff Swallows passing east to west, and a count of 71 Royal Terns 
on the inlet bars—by far the most I’ve ever seen here in Fire Island Inlet.

Birds will migrate tonight, too.

Shai Mitra & Patricia Lindsay
Bay Shore

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[nysbirds-l] Sanderlings and their ID contenders

[Shaibal Mitra]

It seems that in this age of hyper-connectivity, false information travels more 
easily than true. Whereas the good-news story of a Baird's Sandpiper at 
Nickerson Beach, Nassau County, Long Island, propagated quickly and decisively, 
the uncomfortable awareness that the bird in question was actually a Sanderling 
is spreading too slowly.

Conflicting descriptions aside, photos in the various checklists show an adult 
Calidris sandpiper with a robust bill, boldly patterned back feathers with 
extensive rufous color in the interior of each feather, warm color on the face 
and bib, and boldly pale-edged coverts and tertials. All of these are 
characteristic of Sanderlings, which furthermore also have long wings that 
extend beyond the tertials when folded.

Note that this is early July and that juveniles of Arctic-breeding shorebirds 
will not reach us for several weeks. Thus, a Baird's Sandpiper at this date 
would be an adult (very rare), not a scaly-backed juvenile.

Lone shorebirds are difficult to identify, and the grassy habitat chosen by 
this individual was admittedly atypical for a Sanderling, so an error is 
understandable. But it has been two days, so I would have thought that the 
gears of the social media mill would have mulled this grist by now.

Distinguishing rare birds requires thorough familiarity with the common 
species. An identification article in the most recent Birding magazine 
emphasizes this point but unfortunately features a photo that confuses two of 
the most common species (yes, one is Sanderling)! I've pointed this out to 
about a dozen active birders, none of whom was aware of the gaffe. Is it only 
good news that goes viral nowadays?

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore


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Re: [nysbirds-l] Does the Hermit Thrush still breed on Long Island???

[Shaibal Mitra]

Starting out very late this morning, Pat and I decided to heed our own advice 
(and the recent good examples of Eileen, Tom, and Steve) and check out the 
forest breeders at Hunters Garden in Eastport, Suffolk County. Despite such 
handicaps as a 9:36 start, a blazing sun, and 81-85 F temperatures, we were 
very pleased to find Hermit Thrushes in the usual places. With a lot of effort, 
we found 7 birds: four widely spaced males singing, near one of which a second 
bird was heard chucking, presumably his mate; and, at another site, two birds 
calling (one chucking and one mewing), far enough away from all four of the 
singing males that they probably constituted a distinct pair, or a parent with 
a fledgling. I mentioned yesterday that my historical data concerning breeders 
at this site involved eight records of 1-2 birds, the latest being in 2011. So 
I asked Pat, "When do you think was the last time we birded here?" In her 
inimitable way she deadpanned, "Uh, how about 2011?" And though neither of us 
felt that this could be, that's what eBird says, and so it must be true.

So this note is in regard to the purposeful birdwatching thread, as well as the 
forest bird apocalypse one. Pat and I are among a pretty small group of 
continuously active birders who, prior to eBird, routinely recorded time, 
duration, distance, and counts for all species. But like everybody, we focused 
more attention on what we were interested in at the time than on what we would 
be interested in 15 years later. We knew where the Hermit Thrushes were, so why 
make the extra effort to find all of them every time? I'm glad now we took the 
pains to record them as often as we did back then.

This morning, we were generally very favorably impressed with the diversity and 
numbers of birds. We did not detect Yellow-throated Vireo, Wood Thrush, 
Black-and-white Warbler, or American Redstart, but Mike Scheibel and company 
found a Brown Creeper (another scarce and local breeder on LI), and things 
generally felt pretty "normal" to us relative to the expectations we developed 
when we birded this site quite regularly.

There are definitely two Acadian Flycatchers there, apparently a pair, as there 
was in 2007:

https://www.nybirds.org/KBsearch/y2007v57n4/y2007v57n4p298-299lindsay.pdf#

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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RE: [nysbirds-l] Does the Hermit Thrush still breed on Long Island???

[Shaibal Mitra]

Hi David and all,

There was some discussion of this topic in this forum back in September 2018, 
in relation to early fall dates of Hermit Thrush in the NYC area--and the 
possibility that these might relate to dispersal by local breeders vs. regular 
migrants from the boreal. I have an excel file in which I have coded a crude 
mechanism for deconcatenating eBird line items, and I was pleasantly surprised 
to see that I had, at that time, already broken out my Suffolk County records 
for Hermit Thrush.*

But first, to give a shout-out to my colleagues on the Captree June Count, I'll 
note that we have recorded Hermit Thrush only once since 2015: 2 birds in 2016, 
which I believe were at Connetquot River SP. That site has lost a lot of Pitch 
Pines since then and we have not recorded Hermit Thrush 2017-19.

Regarding our own records, Patricia's formal surveys in the Northwest Woods of 
East Hampton in June 2004 revealed quite a few Hermit Thrushes (e.g., singing 
at 5/20 stations on 13 Jun). Apart from these, I can only find 8 eBirded 
records of 1-2 breeders each, all from Hunters Garden and surrounding areas, 
and the most recent was as long ago as 2011:

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27022174 

Searches should be conducted in and near these places, and elsewhere where 
dense pine cover co-occurs with swampy conditions (e.g., around the Maple Swamp 
in Flanders). I would not be at all surprised to find a few territorial birds 
persisting even now, but sustainable populations seems to be a thing of the 
past. This is a shame because the LI populations were spatially and 
ecologically quite apart from the nearest breeders in mainland southeastern New 
York (where they are also, incidentally, quite scarce and local, but preferring 
very different habitats). In contrast, Hermit Thrushes were (at least in my 
youth!) abundant and widespread in a great variety of forest types in Rhode 
Island and eastern Connecticut, from the interior hills right down to the 
Charlestown Moraine, near the coast. There, they aren't/weren't picky at all 
about micro-habitat and tend(ed) to be among the most common forest birds, even 
in horrible-looking third-growth oak woods with a few scattered pines.

But things change fast. The new atlases will hold some painful lessons, I'm 
sure.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

*For those wishing to extract sortable counts and Julian dates from sets of 
eBird line items, this is how I do it:

1. In eBird, carefully select and copy a block of line items, including the 
following columns: item number, common-name-scientific-name-count, location, 
state-country, date.
2. Paste this into an excel spreadsheet.
3. To de-concatenate the counts, create the following series of functions in 
new columns, referring back to the (annoyingly concatenated) 
common-name-scientific-name-count column. That column should be Column B; I 
create five new columns (F through J) with the following functions:

=RIGHT(B2,LEN(B2)-SEARCH(" ",B2,1))
=RIGHT(F2,LEN(F2)-SEARCH(" ",F2,1))
=RIGHT(G2,LEN(G2)-SEARCH(" ",G2,1))
=RIGHT(H2,LEN(H2)-SEARCH(" ",H2,1))
=RIGHT(I2,LEN(I2)-SEARCH(" ",I2,1))

This will yield the count for the first checklist in cell J2 and can be applied 
down for all rows.

4. To de-concatenate day-month-year dates, create three new columns with the 
following functions referring back to the date column:

=TEXT(E2,"mm")
=TEXT(E2,"dd")
=TEXT(E2,"yy")

These will yield sortable, numeric values for month, day, and year, allowing 
you to see, for instance, how many records of Hermit Thrush you have in June 
and July in Suffolk County, and together with the sortable counts, to examine 
patterns of maxima, etc, by month or by year.


From: bounce-123710374-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-123710374-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of TURNER 
[redk...@optonline.net]
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2019 10:01 AM
To: David Nicosia; NY Birds
Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Does the Hermit Thrush still breed on Long Island???

Hi David: As a person who does a fair amount of hiking and birding in the LI 
Pine Barrens, it has been many years since I've heard Hermit Thrush singing; 
this is somewhat surprising given the success conservationists have had in 
preserving tens of thousands of acres of suitable habitat.

John Turner

On June 28, 2019 at 8:56 AM David Nicosia  wrote:

Does the Hermit Thrush still breed in the pine barrens of Long Island?  I 
noticed on the ebird map for June 2019 no HETH reports for LI.  Curious.
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[nysbirds-l] Purposeful Birdwatching

[Shaibal Mitra]

Judging from many, many recent conversations with fellow birders, it seems that 
people are having a tough time of it during these June doldrums. From 
independent sources over the past week, I've heard: "crushing disappointment;" 
"why is it so bad?;" "is it going to get better?" "something could show up, 
right?;" "didn't birding used to be good?;" "this place used to be good, I 
think" and more. And this has mostly been in the context of ordinary, local 
birding, not directly related to the more ominous big-picture concerns 
expressed by Chris recently.

My usual response, admittedly slightly sadistic, is that birding excitement has 
always been relative. We modern observers can't begin to imagine how bad it was 
before the legal protection of birds was implemented a century ago, and yet the 
observers of that time still found birdwatching exciting--and were motivated 
enough to achieve protective legislation in the face of forces as ruthless and 
malevolent as those confronting us now. Imagine the excitement experienced by 
Harry Hathaway, the father of Rhode Island ornithology, when in 1894 he saw his 
first Great Blue Heron, after ten years of field work! It was Hathaway's 
ongoing work that eventually revealed that a unique, seemingly outlying, 19th 
Century winter record of White-throated Sparrow in RI was not an accident. He 
documented two more winter records and lived long enough to see RI's plundered 
and deforested landscape recover sufficiently to harbor the lisping flocks of 
White-throats we now take for granted on the CBCs.

On Long Island, Ludlow Griscom scolded over-exuberant birders who tossed off 
sight records of Ring-billed Gulls in winter and summer, citing a countable 
number of such specimens as the gold standard of documentation for that species 
in that context. Chafing at this discipline, Cruickshank and Peterson figured 
out how to find and identify Ring-billed Gulls better then their 
predecessors--proving again the eternal pleasure of purposeful birdwatching.

Yesterday I saw my first adult Ring-billed Gulls of the season at Robert Moses 
SP, Suffolk County. I'm not sure of the date for my last spring adult, but I 
did manage to record that none were present by 17 April:

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S55097294

And I am able to pull up the date of the late-June return of adults in at least 
one other year:

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S17210602

[note to eBird: please enable sorting of checklists by Julian date!]

A little sleuthing subsequently revealed that two of my colleagues beat me to 
it this year, documenting an adult Ring-bill at Cupsogue two days before my 
exciting find (though it required some follow-up work to obtain their photos 
and a definitive age):

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S57623401

Hypothesis: Ring-billed Gulls whose breeding efforts fail after early June 
abandon the colonies and disperse, some reaching the coast.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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[nysbirds-l] Captree June Count 2019

[Shaibal Mitra]

The Captree June count, in its fifth year since being reinstated in 2015, was 
conducted in southwestern Suffolk County by 31 participants on 8 June, a 
near-perfect weather day, 53-75° with a few clouds in a mostly sunny sky. A 
northeast breeze picked up as the morning progressed, keeping it comfortably 
cool. One area was covered on Friday and some extra species were picked up on 
Sunday, both also excellent weather days. Bob and Michelle Grover once again 
hosted our compilation party at their beautiful home and garden, always a 
highlight of the day.

We tallied a total of 130 species, equaling the recent record from 2017. New to 
the count were Common Eider, Long-tailed Duck, Arctic Tern, Northern Saw-whet 
Owl, Eastern Bluebird, Nelson’s Sparrow, and Blue Grosbeak, and the cumulative 
list now stands at 170 for 2015-19. Evidence of breeding was documented for at 
least 88 species.

In terms of negatives, seawatching was dismal, and we barely eked out Northern 
Gannet, Common Loon and a few scoters despite intense effort, missing 
shearwaters and other oceanic birds that are almost expected with a concerted 
effort in June. Apart from pelagic species, bad misses were few, the most 
notable being Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Black-billed Cuckoo, and Great Horned 
Owl. Common species that showed poorly included Yellow-billed Cuckoo (3 vs. a 
five-year average of 12); Brown Thrasher (5 vs. 11); Black-capped Chickadee (34 
vs. 48); and Blue-winged Warbler (6 vs. 9)—especially given that most other 
species co-occurring with these were counted in robust numbers, reflective of 
strong effort.

Many species were recorded in very large numbers this year. To some extent this 
was probably a function of good weather, strong effort, and observer skill 
continuing to improve in this relatively new endeavor. But in other cases the 
data appear to be capturing population increases, for instance in a number of 
species that have shown consistent upward trends. An interesting example 
involves Lesser Black-backed Gull, which has progressed as follows over the 
five years of this study: 1, 4, 15, 22, and 39. Ospreys also have increased in 
each successive year and leaped to a stupendous total of 172 this year, from 
111 last year. Carolina Wrens shrugged off their latest bout with the Polar 
Vortex and decisively bested the previous max of 81 with a total of 130 this 
year. Least Terns have a thriving colony at Democrat Point this year and leaped 
more than 300% above their five-year average.

The inscrutable Northern Rough-winged Swallow surged to 11 this year, up from 5 
last year and 2 in in 2017—the first year it was recorded at all. This species 
shares ecological associations in the northeastern United States with Warbling 
Vireo, and it appears to be following that species at a lag in filling in one 
of the last remaining gaps in its breeding distribution in this region, namely 
the coastal plain of southwestern Long Island. These species (and also Orchard 
Oriole), despite thriving together in some of the most horrible-looking habitat 
imaginable, remained inexplicably localized as breeders on Long Island until 
very recently.

Among the many other positives, Bald Eagles and Red-shouldered Hawks had young 
in their nests, and Yellow-throated Warbler was tallied for the fifth 
consecutive year. Brown Pelican was recorded for the second time; Least Bittern 
was found again after being missed last year; and Arctic Tern returned to the 
Captree June Count 20 years after “the one that started it all” in 1999, at a 
time when the original phase of the count was winding down. But in terms of 
regional significance, three Northern Saw-whet Owls are surely the most 
astounding—and deserving of the Bird of the Count award!

Thanks again to Bob and Michelle, all the observers, and especially the six 
people new to the count.

Shai & Pat
Bay Shore

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RE:[nysbirds-l] westward spring migration of White-winged Scoters

[Shaibal Mitra]

Around 6:00 pm this evening, while watching an impressive gathering of 
shorebirds on the Cupsogue flats, Suffolk Co., I saw something I've thought 
about for many years but never seen before. Included below is a thread on the 
westward spring migration of several species of ocean-wintering waterfowl; we 
observers on the outer beach see this sort of thing quite often. But sharp 
observers such as Dick Ferren and Tom Burke, one or two geographic layers up in 
southwestern RI, CT, and Westchester Co., have sometimes seen these birds 
actually heading north overland, like Brant.

This evening at Cupsogue, I saw a distant flock over the ocean to the east that 
seemed too high to be cormorants. Putting the scope on them, I saw that most 
were White-winged Scoters, along with a contingent of dark-winged scoters. 
Tracking them, they turned north and crossed the barrier beach over the 
monstrous mansions in Westhampton Beach, at which point the non-White-wings 
peeled off and returned to the ocean. The 35 or so White-winged Scoters pressed 
north, then turned to the northwest and rose higher. An amazing thing to see.

Here's a phone-scoped shot of the flock passing from se to nw over Moriches Bay:

https://flic.kr/p/2exTdzP

Tom Burke tells me that Brant were moving heavily up the Hudson River tonight 
too, as expected on such a fine evening.

Shai Mitra 
Bay Shore
____
From: Shaibal Mitra
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 2:19 PM
To: NYSbirds-L@cornell.edu
Subject: RE: [nysbirds-l] East Hampton, Main Beach: 16 April

Hi Peter and all,

It's great to see more data concerning last winter's remarkable southward 
flight of Razorbills and its aftermath.

Regarding the westward spring migration of White-winged Scoters (and also of 
Red-necked Grebes and Oldsquaws), this is a curious and incompletely understood 
phenomenon, but it was discerned by the old time gunners during the late 19th 
Century. See p. 285 here:

http://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v008n03/p0279-p0290.pdf

More recently Dick Ferren and others have logged many days of spring seawatches 
documenting these flights, so this is a good reminder for us to record flight 
direction.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-82288377-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-82288377-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Peter Max Polshek 
[pm...@well.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 12:45 PM
To: NYSbirds-L@cornell.edu
Subject: [nysbirds-l] East Hampton, Main Beach: 16 April

Sea Watch at Main Beach, East Hampton
7:20 AM - 9:30 AM

Highlight:  Razorbill  99

Surf Scoter  245
White-winged Scoter  44(almost all heading west; go figure?)
Black Scoter  1074
Surf/Black Scoter  60
Long-tailed Duck  3
Red-breasted Merganser  5
Red-throated Loon  291
Common Loon  15
loon sp.  58
Horned Grebe  1
Northern Gannet  631
Double-crested Cormorant  4
Laughing Gull  3
Ring-billed Gull  4
Herring Gull  8
Great Black-backed Gull  20
Razorbill  99   (largest group=11; several groups=6; all heading east)
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RE: [nysbirds-l] White-faced Ibis Heckscher SP Suffolk Co.

[Shaibal Mitra]

I believe the White-faced Ibis present at Heckscher today was a fourth 
individual, distinct from the two birds present here on 1 May:

https://flic.kr/p/2emuZme
https://flic.kr/p/258UbgT

--and also from the brighter bird present at adjacent Timber Point on 15 Apr:

https://flic.kr/p/TpeSQd

Today's bird showed bright red facial skin and a broad white border, most like 
the bird of 15 Apr, but unlike that bird it was notably large, tawny-colored, 
and showed wholly bright pinkish legs (all three of the birds present earlier 
this season showed color mostly around the ankles):

https://flic.kr/p/25hf8eH

When I eventually took a careful count of the ibides, I found exactly 107 
Glossy and 1 White-faced.

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-123574019-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-123574019-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Shaibal Mitra 
[shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, May 1, 2019 11:25 AM
To: NYS Birds
Subject: RE: [nysbirds-l] White-faced Ibises Heckscher SP Suffolk Co.

The two White-faced Ibises continued in the flooded picnic area when I left 
around 10:00.

Both are interesting-looking and not quite typical. One individual, the one Pat 
found yesterday I think, has very limited white facial feathering and 
not-very-bright (but definitely pink-red, especially in good light) facial skin 
and eye. The second individual, found by Pat this morning, is more 
typical-looking in these respects. Both show decidedly pink-red ankles and gray 
bills--appropriate for White-faced Ibis.

Interestingly, the duller-faced bird is very large and very tawny-colored on 
the neck and body--classic White-faced--whereas the brighter-faced bird looks 
much more like a Glossy Ibis in terms of structure and body plumage. My best 
assessment is that both are within the range of expected variation for 
relatively dull adult White-faced Ibises.

Photos here:

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmD9a76j

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-123573507-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-123573507-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Patricia Lindsay 
[pjlind...@optonline.net]
Sent: Wednesday, May 1, 2019 9:47 AM
To: NYS Birds
Subject: [nysbirds-l] White-faced Ibises Heckscher SP Suffolk Co.

Last evening I photographed (poorly, as is my usual wont) a White-faced
Ibis in non breeding plumage--no white borders around the pink eye and
facial skin, and legs pink only around the "knees", feeding with 17
Glossy Ibis in the flooded picnic area of Field 6.

This morning I checked again; there were at least 30 ibis feeding
actively in the puddles, and I immediately picked out a White-faced,
this one showing moderately distinct white borders on the face, and
brighter pink legs than yesterday's bird. I had to race off to work but
alerted Shai Mitra to be looking out for a second bird when he arrived
shortly after. Shai did indeed find what is certainly yesterday's bird
in addition to the better marked individual.

Patricia Lindsay
Bay Shore


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RE:[nysbirds-l] Common Greenshank Info

[Shaibal Mitra]

Shane Blodgett reports that the bird is present, at 5:55 EDT.

From: bounce-123587943-11143...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-123587943-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Shaibal Mitra 
[shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu]
Sent: Sunday, May 5, 2019 9:13 PM
To: NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu)
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Common Greenshank  Info

The Common Greenshank continued at Timber Point when I left at 18:30, feeding 
productively on large worms and other invertebrates on the flooded golf course. 
Birders arriving at the golf course tomorrow morning should park at the main 
parking lot. The favored puddles are immediately east of the parking lot, south 
of a water hazard,  and northeast of the main building (the same puddles 
favored by last spring's Wood Sandpiper). They can be viewed from the edge of 
the main entrance road, between the parking lot and the building.

Tomorrow the weather will be better and golfers will be out. I think the bird 
is likely to be present in the early morning, but I fear that it will 
inevitably fly out at some point, and with golfers active on the course, it 
might not return. Thus, it might be prudent for those serious about seeing it 
to commit to an early arrival, rather than awaiting news of its continuing 
presence before heading over.

I've posted some photos here:

https://flic.kr/p/25bXpNP

Shai Mitra
--

NYSbirds-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm

ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L
3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01

Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/

--


--

NYSbirds-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm

ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L
3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01

Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/

--

[nysbirds-l] Common Greenshank Info

[Shaibal Mitra]

The Common Greenshank continued at Timber Point when I left at 18:30, feeding 
productively on large worms and other invertebrates on the flooded golf course. 
Birders arriving at the golf course tomorrow morning should park at the main 
parking lot. The favored puddles are immediately east of the parking lot, south 
of a water hazard,  and northeast of the main building (the same puddles 
favored by last spring's Wood Sandpiper). They can be viewed from the edge of 
the main entrance road, between the parking lot and the building.

Tomorrow the weather will be better and golfers will be out. I think the bird 
is likely to be present in the early morning, but I fear that it will 
inevitably fly out at some point, and with golfers active on the course, it 
might not return. Thus, it might be prudent for those serious about seeing it 
to commit to an early arrival, rather than awaiting news of its continuing 
presence before heading over.

I've posted some photos here:

https://flic.kr/p/25bXpNP

Shai Mitra
--

NYSbirds-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm

ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L
3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01

Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/

--